Myths of Crete and pre-Hellenic Europe

Theology Library

SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
AT CLAREMONT
California

_ MYTHS OF CRETE AND
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MYTH AND LEGEND IN
LITERATURE AND ART
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CLASSIC MYTH AND LEGEND
By A. R. Hope Moncrieff

CELTIC MYTH AND LEGEND
POETRY AND ROMANCE
By Charles Squire

TEUTONIC MYTH AND LEGEND
By Donald A. Mackenzie

ROMANCE AND LEGEND
OF CHIVALRY |
By A. R. Hope Moncrieff

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
By Donald A. Mackenzie

INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
By Donald A. Mackenzie

MY TdsS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
By Donald A. Mackenzie

MYTHS OF CRETE
AND PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE
By Donald A. Mackenzie

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MYTHS: OF CRETE &

PRE-HELLENIC:- EUROPE

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DONALD-A' MACKENZIE

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THE GRESHAM PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED
66 CHANDOS STREET COVENT GARDEN LONDON

PREFACE

This volume deals with the myths and legends con-
nected with the ancient civilization of Crete, and also
with the rise and growth of the civilization itself, while
consideration is given to various fascinating and impor-
tant problems that arise in the course of investigating
pre-Hellenic habits of thought and habits of life, which
are found to have exercised a marked influence in the
early history of Europe. In the first two chapters the
story of European civilization is carried back to remote
Paleolithic times, the view having been urged, notably
by Mosso, that a connection existed between the civiliza-
tion of the artistic cave-dwellers in France and Spain,
and that of the Island of Minos. It is shown that these
civilizations were not, however, contemporary, but sepa-
rated by thousands of years, and that in accounting for
close resemblances the modern dogma of independent
evolution is put to a severe test. The data summarized
in the Introduction emphasize the need for caution in
attempting to solve a complex problem by the application
of a hypothesis which may account for some resemblances
but fails to explain away the marked differences that
existed even between contemporary civilizations of the

Neolithic, Copper, and Bronze Ages.
ii

331282

iv PREFACE

To enable the reader to become familiar with the
geological, ethnological, and archeological evidence re-
garding the earliest traces and progressive activities of
man in Europe, who laid the foundations of subsequent
civilizations, a popular narrative is given in the first
chapter, the scientific data being cast in the form of a
legend following the manner of Hesiod’s account of the
Mythical Ages of the World in the Work and Days,
and of that of the Indian sage Markandeya’s story of the
“Yugas” in the Mahabharata, and of Tuan MacCarell’s
narrative of his experiences in the various Irish Ages.
Footnotes provide the necessary references.

Consideration is also given, in dealing with Cretan
origins, to Schliemann’s hypothesis regarding the “ Lost
Atlantis”, and the connection he believed existed between
the Mexican, early European, and Nilotic civilizations.
It is brought out that the historical elements in Plato’s
legend are susceptible of a different explanation.

Cretan civilization has not yet been rendered articu-
late, for its script remains a mystery, but of late years
a flood of light has been thrown upon it by the archeo-
logists, among whom Sir Arthur Evans is pre-eminent.
We can examine the remains of the palace of Minos;
tread the footworn stones of the streets of little towns;
examine pottery and frame a history of it; gaze on frescoes
depicting scenes of everyday life in ancient Crete, on seal
engravings which show us what manner of ships were
built and navigated by mariners who ruled the Mediter-
ranean Sea long before the Phoenician period, what deities
were worshipped and what ceremonies were performed;
we can study a painted sarcophagus which throws light
on funerary customs and conceptions of the Otherworld,

PREFACE v

and stone vases which afford glimpses of boxers, bull-
baiters, soldiers, and processions; and we can also examine
the jewellery, weapons, and implements of the ancient
folk. With the aid of these and other data we are en-
abled to reconstruct in outline the island civilization and
study its growth over a period embraced by many cen-
turies. It has even been found possible to arrange a
system of Cretan chronology, approximate dates being
fixed with the aid of artifacts, evidently imported from
Egypt, and of Cretan artifacts found in the Nilotic area
and elsewhere. The idea of the “ Hellenic miracle” no
longer obtains. It is undoubted that Crete was the fore-
runner of Greece, and that the Hellenes owed a debt to
Cretan civilization the importance of which was not realized
even by the native historians of ancient Greece.

Various problems arise in dealing with the growth of
civilization in Crete and the influence exercised by it in
Central and Western Europe. These include the race
question, the migrations of peoples from the area in which
the agricultural mode of life was first adopted, the ques-
tion of cultural contact, of trade routes on sea and land,
of homogeneity of beliefs of common origin, and of the
influence of locality in the development of beliefs and
material civilization. In the pages that follow, these prob-
lems are presented in their various aspects, and such
representative evidence as is available has been utilized
with purpose to throw light upon them.

Readers cannot fail to be impressed by the note of
modernity which prevails in the story of Cretan ‘life. ot
is emphasized to a remarkable degree in Minoan art.
In this connection the coloured illustrations in the present

volume, by Mr. John Duncan, A.R.S.A., are of peculiar

vi PREFACE

interest. In preparing these designs Mr. Duncan has
deliberately sought to follow the style of the Minoan
artists themselves, as displayed in the relics of frescoes,
and in pottery, seal engravings and impressions, &c.,
recently unearthed. The colours are confined to those
used by the native craftsmen, while the decorative borders
are essentially Cretan in character. In the Plate facing
p- 248 a suggestive parallel is drawn between Celtic
and Minoan patterns and symbols. It will be noted that
the Celtic treatment of complicated patterns of common
origin is more thorough and logical than the Minoan,
as, for instance, when we compare No. 3, which has
incomplete curves, with the finished and exact No. 4.
The examples dealt with include a symbol of the Egypto-
Libyan goddess Neith.

The note of modernity in Cretan art inclines us per-
haps to be somewhat generous and enthusiastic in our
praises of it. An eminent archeologist has declared that
“it yields to none that was contemporary and hardly to
any that came after it”. This is a strong claim, especially
when we give consideration to the extraordinarily full
and varied art of Egypt. In Crete, for instance, we do
not meet with the skilled technique and psychological
insight of some of Egypt’s notable portraiture in stone,
nor with faces of such high intellectual and moral qualities;
nor do we meet with the masculine energy, the disciplined
ferocity and brilliant directness of appeal that characterize
the finest products of Assyrian art; nor can we help
noting the absence of the idealistic tendencies of Greek
art, with its aim to visualize mental and spiritual impres-
sions, its moral ascendancy, and its preoccupation with
the idea of beauty of form and character. No doubt it

PREFACE vii

is because Cretan art is infused with a lyrical carelessness
and freedom, not only in subject, but also in execution,
that it makes a very special appeal to modern eyes. There
are certainly notable instances of excellency in delicate”
modelling, a love of colour—who can refrain, for instance,
from admiring the golden afternoon effects of Vasiliki
pottery?—a delight in natural objects, a marked absence
of formalism in the best work, and an extreme and arrest-
ing grace, especially in the ivory work. Yet it is possible
to overestimate the artistic value of such works as the
“Harvester Vase” (p. 212), with its liveliness of move-
ment and expression, and to commend even its defects,
and forget that there are finer examples of low relief in
Egypt, where the artists have left us in no doubt as to
what they meant; it is possible also to infuse our art
criticisms with archzological enthusiasm, as when, for
instance, we gaze on the fresco of the Cup Bearer (p.
118), which is an impression of a very ordinary, good-
looking, young man, with formal eyes, and hand and arm
out of drawing. Yet while, as a whole, Cretan art is very
unequal, there are a few masterpieces which set it on a
high level. The ivory figurine of “The Leaper” is one
of these (p. 48). Its Parisian elegance and Greek-like
accuracy and beauty of modelling take the eye at once.
It is much worn, but the unbroken parts exhibit fine
craftsmanship. The bones and muscles of the arm and
hand especially are expressed with the modesty and ani-
mation of nature; there is none of the gross exaggeration
so often found in Assyrian art. Another outstanding
masterpiece is the bull’s head in steatite (p. 108). We
are struck by its fine dignity, the noble poise of the head,
the alert eye, the mobility of the pricked ears, and the

Vill PREFACE

combination of naturalism with simplicity, grace, and
loftiness of treatment. A contrast is presented by the
other bull’s head in plaster relief (p. 124), with the
magnificent blaze of the great eye and the exhausted gasp
of mouth and nostrils; the noble animal has evidently
fallen a victim in the ring; it is powerful and grand even
when death takes it. Special mention may also be made
of the goat suckling its kid, an admirable piece of realism
characterized by grace and insight (p. 152).

The spirit of naturalism pulsating in Cretan art 1s
also found in Paleolithic art, of which two notable
examples are given (p. 20) from the cave paintings.
These remarkable relics of the Pleistocene Age are typical
products of Paleolithic art, the advanced condition of
which suggests a long history, and even the existence,
in such remote times, not only of devoted personal study,
but also of an organized system of training. The civili-
zation reflected by such an art must have been of no
mean order. Evidently it met with disaster during the
Fourth Glacial Period, but subsequent discoveries may
yet demonstrate that its influence was not wholly lost
to mankind.

D. A. MACKENZIE.

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XIV.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION = = 3 2 z ~ =

Primitive Evropgeans oF GLaciaL AND INTERGLACIAL
PERIODS - =: = = = = - -

PatzouitHic Macic anp RELIGION = 2 -

Ancient PEopLes oF THE GopprEss CULT

Hisrory 1x Myru anp Lecenp—Scuuremann’s Dis-
COVERIES - ~ = = = = = S

Crete as THE Lost ATLANTIS = = 3 s

Tue Great Patace or Knossos - = = =

Races anp Myrus or Neouiruic Crete
Pre-HeLienic EarTH and Corn MoruHers =

Growrtu oF Creran CuLTurE anD CoMMERCE =

Trapinc RELATIONS WITH TRoy -

Lire in THE Lirrie Towns - = 2 é
Tue Patace oF PHaAsTos - zs A = J
Cave DeiTizs AND THEIR SYMBOLS = = é.

Decuine oF Crete anp Risk oF GREECE = =

InpEx - - - - - - - -

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PLATES IN COLOUR

LADIES OF THE MINOAN COURT = = =
From the painting by John Duncan, A.RS.A.

THE SNAKE GODDESS OF CRETE - s B
From the painting by John Duncan, A.R.S.A.

THE BULL-BAITERS - - - - a = z
From the painting by John Duncan, A.R.S.A.

SEA TRADERS FROM CRETE - = = = z
From the painting by John Duncan, A.RS,A.

Page

Frontispiece

facing

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186

218

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PLATES IN MONOCHROME

INSCRIBED TABLETS FOUND IN CRETE - - - facing ae
LIMESTONE SARCOPHAGUS FOUND AT AGHIA

TRIADHA - - - - - - - - - ye xilv
VOTIVE OFFERINGS FROM THE DICTEAN CAVE - » Xlviii
EXAMPLES OF PAL/EOLITHIC ART - - - - ae:

From various sources

PALZEOLITHIC ART: PAINTINGS OF BISON AND
Teepe aes ee) hd TPE eee a RE eee

From copies of the originals by L? Abbé Breuil

GROUP OF FIGURINES, IN TERRA-COTTA, FROM
BRESMIKASTRO) - (>) -- 8 = A $ 3

IVORY FIGURINE AND HEAD—“THE LEAPER”—
FROM KNOSSOS- - - - - - = ° a Bae

Reproduced from the “Annual of the British School at Athens”

THE LION GATE, MYCENZ - - Es - = . » 88
From photograph by English Photo. Co.

BULL’S HEAD, IN STEATITE, FROM KNOSSOS - - » 108
xiii

XIV PLATES IN MONOCHROME

Page
THE THRONE OF MINOS, KNOSSOS - - - - facing 112
THE CUP-BEARER, KNOSSOS - - = = = “ » «118
From photograph lent by Sir Arthur Evans
PAINTED PLASTER RELIEF—BULL’S HEAD—KNOSSOS ee or |
From photograph lent by Sir Arthur Evans
A GLIMPSE OF THE EXCAVATED REMAINS OF
THE PALACE OF KNOSSOS- - - - - - 5 »i3o
A CRETAN SHRINE: RESTORED BY SIR ARTHUR
EVANS - = ~ - - - - - - - pieeEzS
WILD GOAT AND YOUNG: FAIENCE RELIEF, FROM
KNDSSOS ,.- "2 | :-. nee » 152
Reproduced from the “Annual of the British School at Athens”
THE PRINCIPAL ROOM OF THE MUSEUM AT
CANDEQECRETE. -. __ a ees of aes
MAGAZINE OF JARS AND KASELLES, KNOSSOS - » 196
EARLY MINOAN POTTERY, INCLUDING EXAMPLES
WITH “BEAK” OR “TEAPOT SPOUTS” - = » 208
THE “HARVESTER VASE” (STONE) FOUND AT
SGHIA:TRIADHA | i: es her
GENERAL VIEW OF “THE TREASURE OF PRIAM” » 234
From the photograph by Schliemann
GROUP OF JEWELS FROM THE ISLAND OF MOCHLOS » 238
DECORATIVE MOTIFS AND SYMBOLS - - = » 248

(Minoan and Celtic patterns compared )

PLATES IN MONOCHROME

THE RUINS OF THE LITTLE TOWN OF GOURNIA

THE ISLAND OF MOCHLOS, OFF rHE NORTH COAST
OF CRETE - - - - - - - = =

DECORATED POTTERY FROM PALAIKASTRO - -
THE GRAND STAIRCASE, PALACE OF PHESTOS -

THREE VASES, SCULPTURED IN. STONE, FOUND AT
AGHIA TRIADHA - - - - = 3 2

WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS, IN BRONZE, FROM
THE DICTEAN CAVE - - - = = 2

BRONZE IMPLEMENTS FROM GOURNIA - - -

PILLAR AT KNOSSOS, INCISED WITH DOUBLE-AXE
SYMBOLS - - - - = = = = =

MINOAN POTTERY FROM ZAKRO - - = S

RUINS OF THE “ROYAL VILLA”, AGHIA TRIADHA

XV

Page

facing 258

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270

284

288

296

300

310

316

328

* * The Monochrome Plates, unless where otherwise stated, are reproduced

from photographs by G. Maraghiannis, Candia, Crete.

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INTRODUCTION

In relating how Crete has risen into prominence as the
seat of a great and ancient civilization, one is reminded
of the fairy story of Cinderella. The archeological narra-
tive begins with the discovery made by Schliemann of
traces of a distinctive and high pre-Hellenic culture
amidst the ruins of the Peloponnesian cities of Tiryns
and Mycenz, which he assigned to the Homeric Age.
Evidence was soon forthcoming that this culture was not
of indigenous character, but had been imported from
some unknown area after it had reached its highest de-
velopment and was beginning to show signs of decadence
—a sure indication of its great antiquity. A dramatic
search followed for the centre of origin and diffusion.
The wonderful slipper had been found, but where was
Cinderella? In the end, after several claims had been
urged, the last comer was proved to be the missing
princess of culture, and the last comer was Crete.
Research on that island had been long postponed on
account of the disturbed political conditions that pre-
vailed under the Turkish regime.

A new first chapter has since been added to the his-
tory of European civilization. We no longer begin with
Hellenic Greece, or believe that Hellenic culture sprang
full-grown into being like the fabled deity who leapt from

her parent’s head. In this volume it is shown that the
(@ 808) xvii 2

xviii CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

myths and legends preserved in the works of various
classical writers regarding the sources of Grecian culture
were well founded, and that the traditions of the “ Heroic
Age” did not have origin in the imaginations of poets
and dramatists. But, wise as we chance to be, after the
event, we need not regard with scorn the historians of
a past generation who hesitated to sift and utilize such
elusive myths as the Cretan origins of Zeus and Demeter,
and the semi-historical references to Crete, in the works
of Homer, Thucydides, and others, to find a sure basis
for a convincing narrative worthy of the name of history.

It is only within recent years that the necessary archzo-
logical data have been available which enables students of
ancient civilization to draw with some degree of confidence
upon the abundant but confused contents of the store-
house of folk memory.

The discovery that Crete was the birth-place of Agean
civilization, which radiated in the pre- Hellenic times
throughout Europe—“ the little leaven that leavened the
whole lump”—does not, however, set a limit to the work
of research, or solve all the problems which are involved.
Although it has been demonstrated that the Cretan leaven
was in existence and at work at.the dawn of the Egyptian
Dynastic Age, and when the Sumerians were achieving
their earliest triumphs in the Tigro-Euphratean valley,
we are still confronted with the problem of remote origin.
The earliest settlers in Crete had, as their artifacts demon-
strate, already obtained a comparatively high degree of
Neolithic culture. Houses were built of stone as well as
of wattles daubed with clay, a sea trade was in existence,
for obsidian was imported from Melos, and a section of
the community had adopted the agricultural mode of life.
Withal, beliefs were well developed and had assumed a
fixity which remained until they were merged in the

INTRODUCTION XIX

accumulated mass of Grecian inheritance, and suffered,
as a result, for long ages, complete loss of identity. The
earliest settlement of people at Knossos has been assigned
to about 10,000 B.c., an approximate dating which is based
on the evidence of the archeological strata.

But the earliest traces of an artistic culture in Europe
belong to a still more remote age. Although during the
vast periods of the Neolithic, or Late Stone Age, there
existed savage communities, just as happens to be the
case at the present day in various parts of the world,
there were also, as in Crete, Egypt, and Babylonia, refined
and progressive peoples who were already “heirs of all
the Ages”—the Ages when ancient Europe passed through
stages of climatic oscillations of such pronounced character
that the remains of mankind are found in strata yielding
alternately tropical, temperate, and Arctic flora and fauna.
The period in question, the lengthiest in the history of
civilization, is the archeological Paleolithic, or Early
Stone Age. Towards its close, for which the minimum
dating is 20,000 B.c., there existed in Europe at least two
races, whose cultures are referred to as Aurignacian and
Magdalenian. A stage called Azilian links the Paleo-
lithic with the Neolithic Age, and the continuity of cul-
ture from the earliest times is now generally regarded
as an established fact.

The story of Cretan civilization may constitute, as has
been said, the first chapter of European history. But the
“Introduction” is derived from the Paleolithic Age,
before and during the Fourth Glacial Epoch of the
geologists.

Our introductory data are obtained from the famous
Paleolithic cave-dwellings of France and Spain, which are
dealt with in Chapters I and II. No definite traces are
yet obtainable, among the scanty human remains that

xx CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

have been discovered, of racial types resembling those of
early Egypt or early Crete, but remarkable evidence has
been forthcoming which not only establishes the great
antiquity of certain artistic motifs of finished artistic skill
and even of certain customs that afterwards appeared on
the Island of Minos and in the Nilotic and Tigro-
Euphratean areas.

The links with Crete are so close and suggestive that
writers like Angelo Mosso have expressed the belief in
the Neolithic and Cretan origin of Aurignacian and Mag-
dalenian art. But the geologists have established beyond
a shadow of doubt that the civilization of which this art
is an eloquent expression must be assigned to the latter
part of the Pleistocene period, when the reindeer roamed
through the valleys of France.

Those ancient Paleolithic hunters were skilled artists
and carvers of bone and ivory. They painted and engraved
on cave roofs the figures of animals with a realism and
freedom which were never surpassed in Greece; they also
carved ivory female figurines in the round which are
worthy of comparison with similar artistic products of
Egypt, and not always to their disadvantage.

“The resemblances”, writes Mosso, “between the
most ancient female figures in France and the Neolithic
figures of Crete and Egypt are very striking.’”” Among
the rock pictures of women he sees “the girdle and the
Egyptian mode of hairdressing”. Describing a Palzo-
lithic painting, he writes: “The women’s hair flows down
upon their shoulders like that of the Minoan women;
the bosom is uncovered and the breasts much developed.
The triangular shape of the heads indicates a hood or
a kind of mitre. Two of them wear a bracelet on the
upper arm near the elbow, and all have a very slender
waist, with the body shaped like an hour-glass.” He

INTRODUCTION xxi

also comments in another instance on the skirts, which
were also characteristic of Crete.1 Comparisons between
the Cretan frescoes and the Paleolithic cave-paintings of
Spain and France have likewise been made by the Abbe
Breuil, Don Juan Cabre Aguila, and other Continental
archeologists.

One of the racial types which existed during the
Aurignacian and Magdalenian periods, or stages of cul-
ture, was the Cro Magnon. It can still be traced in
Europe, especially in the French Dordogne valley, and
among the Berbers in North Africa, as Dr. Collignon has
shown.2 Evidence of Cro-Magnon migration in Late
Pleistocene times has also been forthcoming from Belgium,
while traces of their burial customs have been found in
Moravia and elsewhere. How and by what route Aurig-
nacian influence reached Crete, after the lapse of thousands
of years, we have as yet no means of knowing. It seems
reasonable to assume that this civilization did not end
without leaving heirs somewhere. The Greeks were heirs
of Crete, and yet it is but quite recently that this fact has
been fully demonstrated.

Not only has the antiquity of European art been
established; the Paleolithic data which have been accu-
mulated emphasize also the remote beginnings of certain
magical and religious beliefs and practices. The-sugges-
tion is thus rendered plausible that some of the wide-
spread myths and folk-tales may be as old as the French
and Spanish cave-paintings and ivory carvings. Who
will venture, for instance, to date the origin of that far-
travelled tale about the lovers who escape from the giant’s
den and throw down pebbles which become mountains
and twigs which create forests, to delay their angry pur-

1 Dawn: of Mediterranean Civilization, Angelo Masso, pp. 175 et seq-
2 Quoted in Ripley’s The Races of Europe, pp. 172 et seq.

xxii CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

suer? The late Mr. Andrew Lang has shown that it is
found in Zulu, Gaelic, Norse, Malagasy, Russian, Italian,
and Japanese folk-literatures. The author “ will never ”,
he wrote, “be known to fame”, although, among story-
tellers, he has achieved “the widest circulation in the
world ”.*

A now popular hypothesis, first urged by Hugh Miller,
is usually held to offer a conclusive explanation for the
wonderful resemblances between certain legends collected
in various parts of the world. “I have seen”, Miller
wrote about eighty years ago, “in the museum of the
Northern Institution (Inverness) a very complete collec-
tion of stone battle-axes, some of which have been formed
little earlier than the last age, by the rude natives of
America and the South Sea Islands, while others, which
have been dug out of the cairns and tumuli of our own
country, bear witness to the unrecorded feuds and for-
gotten battle-fields of twenty centuries ago. I was a
good deal struck by the resemblance which they bear to
each other; a resemblance so complete, that the most
practised eye can hardly distinguish between the weapons
of the old Scot and the New Zealander. . . . Man ina
savage state is the same animal everywhere, and his con-
structive powers, whether employed in the formation of
a legendary story or of a battle-axe, seem to expatiate
almost everywhere in the same ragged track of inven-
tion. For even the traditions of this first stage may
be identified, like his weapons of war, all the world
over. *

Since Miller’s day experts have become so familiar
with the stone implements and weapons of primitive
men that they experience no difficulty, not only in dis-
tinguishing between the characteristic products of various

1 Custom and Myth, pp. 87 et seq. 2 Scenes and Legends, pp. 31-32 (1835).

INTRODUCTION Xxilil

countries, but also of the various ages, or stages of
culture, in one particular area. We find ourselves, how-
ever, on less sure ground when we deal with traditional
tales. Miller’s hypothesis in regard to these must still
receive acceptance but with certain qualifications. It
certainly accounts for striking resemblances, although not
for equally striking differences. If it were to be urged
in every instance, the work of research would be stultified
and rendered somewhat barren. “There is a well-known
tendency”, as Mr. Hogarth reminds us, “to find one
formula to explain all things, and an equally notorious
one to overwork the latest formula.’”*

The intensive study of the mythology of a particular
civilization, like that of Crete or Egypt, for instance,
reveals marked local divergencies which are not easily
accounted for. It is an extremely risky proceeding, there-
fore, when we find a fragment of a legend, or a clue to
some archaic religious custom, in a cultural centre like
Crete, to undertake the work of reconstruction by select-
ing something from Australia, adding a Chinese idea, and
completing the whole with contributions from Russia,
Greenland, or Mexico. We may find similar symbols
:n different countries, but it does not follow that they
had originally all the same significance 5 similar alpha-
betical signs have not always the same phonetic values.
The human mind is not like a mould which produces
automatically the same shapes for the same purposes,
or the same ideas to account for the same problems, in
every part of the world.

Myths are products of beliefs, and beliefs are pro-
ducts of experiences. They are also pictorial records
of natural phenomena. Mankind have not had the same
experiences everywhere, nor have they found the world

1 Jonia and the East, p. 107+

xxiv CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

lacking in variety of contour and climate. Certain
peoples, for instance, have achieved progress in civiliza-
tions based on the agricultural mode of life. Their
beliefs have consequently been influenced by their agri-
cultural experiences, and their myths have been given an
agricultural significance. Before the Calendar was in-
vented, the farmer who profited from the experiences
of his ancestors, and handed on his knowledge to pos-
terity, did not speak about “ploughing in spring” and
“reaping in autumn”, or explain the futility of sowing
seed, say, in December and expecting crops in April. He
framed instead a system of myths which guided the agri-
cultural operations of his kin for long centuries. In
India, which suffers at one season from great heat
and drought, he conceived the Drought Demon which
imprisoned the fertilizing waters in a mountain cave.
Just when the world is about to perish, the god Indra
comes to its rescue armed with his thunderbolt. He
attacks and slays the demon, exclaiming:

I am the hurler of the bolt of thunder;
For man flow freely now the gleaming waters.

After this thunder-battle, rain descends in torrents, the
withered grass sprouts luxuriantly, and the rice harvest
follows.

In Babylonia the demon is the water-monster Tiamat,
who enters the Euphrates and causes it to flood. She
is slain and cut up by Merodach, who thus sets the world
in order. Then the farmer sows his seeds. In Egypt
the inundation of the Nile is brought about by Ra, who,
having undertaken to destroy his human enemies, relents
and withdraws the waters, so that seeds may be cast in
the fertilized soil and the harvest gathered in season.
Pious worshippers of the deities who controlled the forces

INTRODUCTION XXV

of nature were expected to perform ceremonies and offer
sacrifices to assist or propitiate them. Thus the local
forms of religion were shaped by local phenomena of
which the myths are reflections.

Peoples who lived among the mountains and followed
the pastoral mode of life had different experiences from
those who found their food-supply in river valleys. In
districts where the rainfall was regular and abundant
they knew nothing of India’s droughts, or Egypt’s floods.
On the other hand, they might have experiences of bind-
ing frost, fierce blizzards, and snow-blocked passes, which
forced them to migrate to districts where they could
winter their flocks and herds. Their myths were con-
sequently based on experiences and natural phenomena
which contrasted sharply with those of the Nilotic and
Tigro-Euphratean peoples, with the result that their
systems of religious beliefs developed upon different
lines. Similarly, peoples who dwelt upon islands and
along sea-coasts and gathered the harvest of the deep,
and forest-dwellers who lived on fruits and trophies of
the chase, formulated and perpetuated modes of thought
which were products of their particular modes of life in
different environments. It is obvious, therefore, that the
mind of man did not everywhere follow “the same rugged
track of invention”. In different districts and at different
periods sections of mankind achieved independent de-
velopment on sharply differentiated lines, with the result
that religious conceptions, like outstanding racial types,
had their areas of characterization.

Consideration should next be given to cultural in-
fluence resulting from contact. The oscillations of climate
which followed the last glacial epoch caused widespread
migrations of peoples. Racial types which are still re-
cognizable were already fixed ; mankind at the dawn of

xxvi CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

the Neolithic or Late Stone Age had attained full mental?
and physical development. Races were distributed far
and wide, and settlers favoured those areas which were
suitable for their habits of life. The barriers of ice and
snow which had separated peoples for thousands of years
vanished before the warm sun, and as the various races
prospered and increased they came into contact with one
another. Let us picture a pastoral tribe issuing from a
region of steppe lands and entering a valley occupied by
agriculturists. They come with a heritage of beliefs and
customs as alien as their language to those who rear
crops and dwell in villages. The small farmers regard
them as demons, and go out to battle to conquer or be
conquered. If the invaders prevail, they remain in the
district and in time fuse with the conquered. Then the
beliefs of the mingled peoples are fused also. The result
is a compromise between the distinctive religions. In the
valley the earlier faith secures ascendancy because the
invaders have no agricultural religion and no words even
for “corn” and “furrow” and “plough”. But a portion
of the conquerors follow their old habits of life as pas-
toralists and hunters, and occupy the grazing-lands round
the valley and among the hills, where they find a new
Olympus for their gods. In time a pantheon is formed
which embraces the deities of conquered and conquerors.
Trade springs up between various communities and
the influence of culture flows along the trade routes.
The knowledge of how to grow corn passes from tribe
to tribe. But the isolated hunters in a northern valley
who become agriculturists do not simply import imple-
ments and seeds; those who instruct them how to till
the soil instruct them also regarding the ceremonies
which are necessary to ensure growth and the harvest.

1 That is, so far as can be indicated by skull capacity.

INTRODUCTION XXVIil

So the agricultural religion of Egypt or Babylon passes
through Europe and Asia, and is adopted by peoples who
mix with it their own peculiar local practices inherited
for untold generations from their remote ancestors.

In Denmark the northern huntsman and fisherman
came into contact with the little farmers from the south,
or tribes who had acquired the southern art of agriculture.
They learned to sow the seed in sorrow and to beat their
breasts when they cut the corn, and thus slew the corn
spirit, and to return rejoicing carrying the sheaves.
Magical ceremonies were considered to be as essential
to agricultural success as ploughs and reaping-hooks,
Consequently they adopted the magical ceremonies that
had origin somewhere on the shores of the Mediterranean
or in the Nile valley. So we find in Denmark the myth
of Scef, the child god, who comes over the sea with the
first sheaf of corn, which so closely resembles the Baby-
lonian myth of Tammuz, who comes as a child from the
Underworld and the Deep every new year.

The non-agricultural mountain-folk, who migrated
hither and thither, knew naught of the corn-child. They
conceived of a god who shaped the mountains with his
hammer, the thunderbolt; each blow was a peal of
thunder. Healso hammered the sky into shape. Meteorites
which fell from the sky were found to be of iron; it was
consequently believed that the sky was formed of iron,
which became known as “the metal of heaven”. Iron
was regarded as a protective charm. It was associated
with the great deity who slew demons. A mortal had
only to “touch iron” to drive demons away, for by doing
so he established a magical connection between himself
and the hammer deity.

Worshippers of the mountain-god went northward
and called him Thor. In Asia Minor he was Tarku and

xxviii CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Teshub; in India, Indra, son of Dyaus; in Greece, Zeus.
Those worshippers who reached Palestine called him
Pathach (the Hebrew name), and those who settled in
Egypt knew him as Ptah, and, although thunderstorms
are rare in Egypt, the Memphites never forgot the
hammer of Ptah and the heaven of iron which he had
beaten into shape. In time Ptah acquired new attributes.
As the artisan-god he was credited with the invention of
the Egyptian potter’s wheel, on which he shaped the sun
and moon, and the first man and woman. He was thus
localized. Yet he ever remained distinctive among the
deities of Egypt.

Tradition dies hard. Once an idea became impressed
on the human mind it remained there, and new ideas
were superimposed upon it. The Egyptians achieved
great progress as thinkers and artisans, yet they clung to
beliefs and customs of savage origin. So did the Greeks,
who never forgot Cronos, the bloodthirsty god who
swallowed his children and had to be murdered by his
heir. It does not follow, however, that this tendency
to conserve ancient beliefs and modes of thought was
opposed to the growth of culture, or that men and women
who perpetuated them were as ignorant and bloodthirsty
as their primitive ancestors. In our own day an indi-
vidual with a university degree may dread to spill salt,
regard a black cat as lucky, and refuse.to occupy a hotel
bedroom numbered 13. Motor-cars and flying-machines
carry mascots, as did the galleys of ancient Egypt, Crete,
and Phceenicia. The writer has seen a Girton girl per-
petuating a religious custom of her remote ancestors by
attaching a rag to a tree that overhangs a “wishing well”,
and wishing silently her wish quite as fervently as do less
highly cultured members of her sex in places as far re-
moved as the Scottish Highlands and the Island of Crete.

INTRODUCTION XXIX

Superstitious practices which are familiar in our every-
day lives have a long history. They have survived nearly
two thousand years of Christian influence. Who will
undertake to date their origins? They may go back to
the Bronze Age, the Late Stone Age, and even to the
interglacial periods of the Paleolithic Age. The follow-
ing comparative notes will serve to illustrate the antiquity
of at least one remarkable folk-belief.

In Upper Egypt discovery has been made of bodies
which were buried in hot dry sands about sixty centuries
ago. Not only have the bones, skin, hair, muscles, and
eyes been preserved, but even the internal organs. The
contents of stomachs and intestines have been examined
by Dr. Netolitzky, the Russian scientist, who ascertained
in this way what food the ancient people ate. “The. occa-
sional presence of the remains of mice in the alimentary
canals of children, under circumstances which prove that
the small rodent had been eaten after being skinned, is”,
writes Professor Elliot Smith, “a discovery of very great
interest, for Dr. Netolitzky informs me that the body of
a mouse was the last resort of medical practitioners in the
East several millennia later as the remedy for children in
extremis.” Until comparatively recently the liver of a
mouse was in the Scottish Highlands the “old wife’s
cure” for children dangerously ill. The writer was in-
formed regarding it in more than one locality, long before
the Egyptian discovery was made, by women who pro-
fessed to have had experience of the efficacy of the mouse
cure.

The ashes of a mouse baked alive used to be a cure
for rheumatism in Suffolk. In Lincolnshire fried mice
were given to children suffering from whooping-cough
and quinsy. According to Henderson* a whooping-cough

1 The Ancient Egyptians, p. 43- 2 Folk-lore of Northern Counties, p. 144.

xx CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

patient in the northern counties had to be seated on a
donkey, with face towards the tail, when the mouse was
being eaten. The custom of entombing a live mouse in
an ash-tree, to cure children or charm cattle against attack,
prevailed in Leicestershire A similar custom obtained
in Scotland, where the shrew-mouse was believed to para-
lyse a limb it chanced to creep over.? The traditional
fear of mice among women is of interest in this con-
nection. Roasted mouse was, in the north-eastern coun-
ties of Scotland, a cure for cold or sore throat.

In Egypt the mouse was associated with the lunar
god Thoth, who cured Horus when he was bitten by the
scorpion, restored the sight of his eye which was blinded
by the black Set pig, and assisted in uniting the frag-
ments of the body of Osiris. The mouse crouches at the
base of his rod of destiny, on which he measured out the
lives of men.2 In Greece the mouse was associated with
Apollo. This god was identified by the Romans with the
sun, but Homer knew him as Smintheus Apollo, “ Mouse
Apollo”, who struck down the Greeks with his arrows of
pestilence.t According to Strabo, there were many places
which bore the Apollo mouse name.’ Mouse feasts were
held at Rhodes, Gela, Lesbos, and Crete. According to
a Trojan story, the settlement took place in Anatolia of
Cretans who were advised by an oracle to select the first
place where they were attacked by the children of the
soil. At Hamaxitus, in the Troad, a swarm of mice ate
their bow-strings and the leather of their armour, and
they decided to make that place their home.’ In India

1 Leicester County Folk-lore Series, p. 29. In White's Selborne reference is made to
the “shrew ash” in Hampshire.

2 Dalzell’s Darker Superstitions of Scotland, pp. 191-2.

8 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 226.

4 The Iliad, 1, 1 et seq. 5 Strabo, XIII, 604.

6 Strabo, XIII, 604, and also lian, H. A., XII, 5.

INTRODUCTION XXx1

the mouse was associated with Rudra, to whom the poet
prayed:

Give unto me of thy medicines, Rudra,

So that my years may reach to a hundred.?

Rudra, like Apollo, sent diseases, and was therefore able
to prevent and cure them.

The mouse feasts referred to by ancient writers may
have been held to ensure long life among those who, like
the Egyptians, connected the mouse with the moon, the
source of fertility and growth and the measurer of the
days of man. The Egyptian lunar god Khonsu was the
divine physician and the love-god. ll fertility deities,
indeed, cured diseases. The King of Mitanni sent the
image of Ishtar to Thebes when Pharaoh Amenhotep III
was ill. Isaiah refers to the mouse-eating practice: “They
that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the
gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh,
and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed
together, saith the Lord.”? When the Philistines, who
came from Crete, were stricken by a pestilence, they
placed five golden mice in the ark and sent it back to
the Israelites.2 Thus we find the Highland mouse-cure
belief going back for 6000 years and reaching to the
remotest areas settled by representatives of the Mediter-
ranean race. Other superstitions may be as old, or older.
The ancient Egyptians, like our own people, inherited
beliefs from their savage ancestors.

The evidence summarized in this volume (Chapter IT)
regarding Paleolithic customs and beliefs tends to empha-
size that, while mankind everywhere may arrive at similar
conclusions under similar circumstances, some conceptions
were handed down by tradition and distributed over wide

1 Rigveda, II, 33. 3 Isaiah, \xvi, 17. 3 Samuel, i, 5-6.

xxxii CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

areas by wandering peoples long before the dawn of the
Neolithic period in Europe and Egypt. If the mouse
cure can be traced back for sixty centuries it may well
have been known for a further sixty centuries. In Paleo-
lithic times, at least 20,000 years ago, the spine of a fish
was laid on the corpse when it was entombed, just as the
“ded” amulet, which was the symbol of the backbone of
Osiris, was laid on the neck of the Egyptian mummy.
Anthropologists have favoured the theory that the animal-
headed deities of Egypt are links between animal and
anthropomorphic deities. Animal-headed deities with
arms uplifted in the Egyptian attitude of adoration figure
in Paleolithic cave-drawings. The process of change, if
such it was, must therefore have commenced thousands
of years before the Dynastic Egyptians became supreme
in the Nile valley. It used to be urged that the Phceni-
cians were the inventors of alphabetic script, but linear-
ized signs “of curiously alphabetic aspect—at times even
in groups—are seen engraved on reindeer horns or ivory,
or on the surface of the rock itself”, which were the work
of Paleolithic folk in the Fourth Glacial Period. “Certain
signs”, says Sir Arthur Evans, from whom we quote,
“carved on a fragment of reindeer horn, are specially
interesting from the primitive anticipation that they pre-
sent of the Phoenician al/ef.... It is interesting to
observe that among the existing peoples of the extreme
north of Europe, whose conditions most nearly represent
‘those of the old Reindeer folk, the relics of pure pic-
tography were preserved to modern times. . . . These
Lapp pictographs themselves belong to a widely diffused
primitive group—illustrated by the paintings and carvings
on rocks and other materials—which extends across the
whole Fenno-Tataric region from the White Sea to the
Urals and throughout Siberia to the borders of China.

Terra-cotta Disk from Phzestos, with pictographic script which reads from the centre

outwards, but has not been deciphered. It is believed to have come from Lycia,

Asia Minor. Heads with feather head-dress similar to that worn by the Philistines
appear on the disk.

INSCRIBED TABLETS FOUND IN CRETE

INTRODUCTION XXXiil

It was probably from an early offshot of this great family
of pictorial signs that the elaborate characters of the
Chinese writing were ultimately evolved.” Similar picto-
graphs are found in Scandinavia, Ireland, Brittany, Por-
tugal, Spain, North-West Africa, the Canaries, in the
Maritime Alps, the Vosges, Dalmatia, in Transylvania
and on early Trojan artifacts.

In addition to the pictographs there also passed from
the Paleolithic into the Neolithic and Bronze Ages cer-
tain burial customs, decorative designs developed from
animal drawings, the custom of shaping figurines of the
mother goddess with female characteristics emphasized,
and the bell-shaped skirt which found favour in Crete.
Paleolithic pottery found in Belgium has Neolithic char-
acteristics. It has also been demonstrated, as stated, that
what is known as the Azilian stage of culture links the
cultures of the Early and Late Stone Ages. After the
close of the Fourth Glacial Period the early pioneers of
the Mediterranean race came into contact in Europe with
the remnants of the Paleoliths and mingled with them
in localities. Among a large number of skulls taken
recently from an old Glasgow graveyard, into which an
Infirmary extension intruded, were a considerable sprink-
ling of Paleolithic types. The interments at this part
were made during the 18th century and the early part of
the rgth century. Apparently there were descendants of
the Palzoliths among the makers of modern Glasgow.

Certain beliefs and customs and folk-tales appear, also
to have survived with the peoples of the Reindeer Period,
among whom they were prevalent. And as the culture
of that period (the Fourth Glacial Epoch) developed from
the cultures of the earlier periods, it is possible that
some surviving modes of thought may have obtained for

1 Scripta Minoa, pp. 3y 4, 6.
(¢ 808) 3

xxxiv CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

40,000 years. The Chellean hand-axe of the Second
Interglacial Period in France was distributed far and
wide; it travelled across the Italian land-bridge to Africa
and penetrated as far as Cape Colony; it was imitated in
Asia and passed across the Behring Straits land-bridge to
America, and reached the utmost southern limits of South
Amerita. It never reached Australia. Perhaps Mr. Lang’s
“ far-travelled tale” was similarly given widespread dis-
tribution at a remote period in the history of the human
races. The culture of a particular people reached remote
corners of the globe to which descendants of its originators
may never have penetrated. We are familiar with this
phenomenon even at the present day. It should be borne
in mind, therefore, that although the mind of man may
have in primitive times conceived similar ideas and in-
vented similar tales in various regions widely separated,
the masses of humanity on the whole have also been more
prone to conserve what they have acquired than to wel-
come something new. Nothing impresses the student
of comparative mythology more than the barrenness of
the primitive mind. New ideas are the exception rather
than the rule. Changes in religious ideas were forced
upon ancient peoples either by intruding aliens or by
the influence exercised by physical phenomena in new
areas of settlement. Even when a change occurred the
past was not entirely cut off. Rather a fusion was effected
of the new ideas with the old.

In dealing with a mythology like that of Crete, which
has not yet been rendered articulate, for the script has
still to be deciphered, we expect to find traces of more
than one stage of development in religious ideas, and
also of the ideas of settlers on the island of peoples from
different cultural centres. Certain relics suggest Egyptian
influence and others point to an intimate connection with

INTRODUCTION XXXV

archaic Grecian beliefs. No doubt Crete inherited much
from Egypt; and certain Greek States in which Cretan
colonists settled borrowed much from Crete. It remains
to be proved, however, that the Cretans, after settling on
their island, developed on the same lines as primitive
peoples elsewhere, or even that they previously passed
through the different stages of religious culture regarding
which evidence has been gleaned from various parts of
the world.

It is sometimes assumed that the religious history
of the human race is marked by well-defined layers of
thought—Naturalism or Naturism, Totemism, Animism,
Demonology, Tribal Monotheism which with the fusion
of tribes leads to Polytheism, and then ultimately sole
Monotheism. All these stages may be traced in a par-
ticular area. But we must not expect to find them every-
where. Human thought has not accumulated strata of
ideas in regular sequence, like geological or archeological
strata. Some peoples, for instance, have never conceived
of a personal god, or even of distinctive animistic spirit
groups. Mr. Risley has shown that the jungle-dwellers
of Chota Nagpur fear and attempt to propitiate “not a
person at all in any sense of the word. If one must state .
the case in positive terms,” he adds, “I should say that
the idea which lies at the root of their religion is that
of Power, or rather of many Powers. . . . Closer than
this he does not seek to define the object to which he
offers his victim, or whose symbol he daubs with vermilion
at the appointed season. Some sort of Power is there,
and that is enough for him. . . . All over Chota Nagpur
we find sacred groves, the abode of equally indeterminate
things, who are represented by no symbols and of whose
form and function no one can give an intelligible account.
They have not yet been clothed with individual attributes;

xxxvi CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

they linger on as survivals of the impersonal stage of
religion.”? The Australian natives, on the.other hand,
and even those who are more primitive than the Chota
Nagpur jungle-dwellers, have a god whose voice is imitated
by the “bull roarer”’. Paleolithic man of the Reindeer
Age, as has been said, had animal-headed deities and
shaped, in ivory, figurines of the mother goddess. In
Egypt and Babylonia there were composite deities, half
animal and half human, from the earliest times of which
we have knowledge. The Chinese have deities also,
but have specialized as ancestor-worshippers. Argue as
we may regarding well-defined “ mental processes”, it
must be recognized that religious phenomena all over the
world cannot be explained by a single hypothesis, and that
we are not justified in assuming that the same stages, or
all the recognized stages, of development can be traced
everywhere. There may have been Totemic beliefs in
Crete and Greece and there may not. Until definite
proof is forthcoming that there were, the problem must
remain an open one. Similarly, we should hesitate to
accept the hypothesis that patriarchal conditions were
preceded by matriarchal and that goddesses preceded gods
everywhere. In India the gods were prominent in the
Vedic period; during the post-Vedic period goddesses
ceased to be vague and became outstanding personalities
as ‘Great Mothers”’.?

This brings us to an interesting phase of Cretan re-
ligious and social life. From the evidence afforded by
idols, pictorial art, symbols, and traditions it would
appear that the goddess cult was supreme on the island.
Priestesses were as prominent as they were at Dodona.
In fact, women appear to have taken a leading part in

1 Census of India (1901), Vol. I, Part I, pp. 352 et seq.
2 Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 148 et seq.

INTRODUCTION XXXVIi

religious ceremonies, as Jeremiah found was the case
in Jerusalem, where women baked cakes which were
offered to the “ Queen of Heaven”, the Eastern mother-__
goddess. ‘Probably in Minoan Crete”, writes Mr.
Hall, “women played a greater part than they did even
in Egypt, and it may eventually appear that religious
matters, perhaps even the government of the State itself
as well, were largely controlled by women. It is certain
they must have lived on a footing of greater equality
with the men than in any other ancient civilization, and |
we see in the frescoes of Knossos conclusive indications |
of an open and easy association of men and women, corre- \
sponding to our idea of ‘Society’, at the Minoan Court |
unparalleled till our own day.”! Among the goddess |
worshippers of Sumeria women enjoyed a high social
status also. But among the Semites of the god cult this
was not the case. Women were not depicted in Assyria
as in Crete. It was when Babylonian influences entered
the Assyrian Court that Queen Sammu-ramat—the
Semiramis of tradition—rose into prominence. Professor |
Sayce has drawn attention to the significant fact that |
when the Semites translated the Sumerian hymns they |
transposed “women and men”’ (equivalent to our “ ladies |
and gentlemen”) into “men and women”. The law of |
descent by the female line which obtained in Egypt and
elsewhere among peoples of the Mediterranean race
was probably a relic of customs which had a religious
significance.

The view has been strongly advocated that in all
primitive communities matriarchal conditions preceded
patriarchal conditions, and goddess worship the worship
of gods. It is not now generally accepted, however:
some peoples seem to have been worshippers of male

1 The Ancient History of the Near East, p. 48.

xxxvili CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

_deities and others of female deities from the earliest
times. The. fusion of the god and goddess cults in
Egypt and Babylonia and elsewhere was probably one
of the results of the fusion of peoples. In some
countries, where patriarchal peoples formed military
aristocracies, they may have ordered succession by the
male line. But there is also evidence to show that they
adopted the wiser method of marrying the heiresses of
estates and thrones to win the allegiance of the masses.
“ Mother-right” prevailed in Egypt, for instance, until
the end. The problem involved is too complex to be
accounted for by a single hypothesis.

It would appear that the activities of the Cretan
women were chiefly confined to indoor life. As in
Egypt, they were depicted by painters with white skins,
while the men were, with the exception of princes, given
red skins. "Women were also more elaborately attired
and bejewelled than men.

In dealing with ancient civilizations it is of impor-
tance to take note of burial customs. There can be
little doubt that these have been ever closely associated
with religious beliefs. What are known to archeologists
as “ceremonial burials” must have been performed, it
is reasonable to suppose, with some degree of ceremony
with purpose either to promote the welfare of the
deceased or to secure the protection of the living. The
Dynastic Egyptians, for instance, mummified their dead
because they believed that the soul could not continue
to exist in the Otherworld unless the body were pre-
served intact in the tomb. On the other hand, the
Homeric Achzans burned their dead, so that the soul
might be transferred by fire to Hades, from which it
would never again return! In pre-Dynastic Egypt the

1 liad, XXII, 75.

INTRODUCTION er

body was laid in a shallow grave in crouched position,
with food-vessels, implements, and weapons beside it.
A similar custom prevailed in Babylonia and throughout
Europe in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Dwellers on
the northern sea-coast of Europe set their dead adrift in
boats, as was Balder in the Eddic legend and Sceaf in the
Beowulf poem. Others buried their dead in caves, threw
them to wild beasts, or ate them.

In some cases it would appear that the beliefs con-
nected with burial were suggested by local phenomena.
In Upper Egypt bodies are naturally mummified in the
hot dry sands. It is possible, therefore, that the custom
of embalming the dead may have grown up among that
section of the Egyptian people whose religious beliefs
were formulated in the area where the corpse was
naturally preserved. They may have been horrified to
find that bodies did not remain intact in new districts to
which they migrated. But the custom of burning the
dead cannot be explained in this way.

Burial customs may not always afford us definite clues
regarding religious beliefs. It does not follow that the
pre-Dynastic Egyptians, the Babylonian Sumerians, and
the Neolithic Europeans who favoured crouched burials
had all the same ideas regarding the destiny of men, or
the same beliefs regarding the Otherworld. Different
conceptions might be prevalent in a single country. It is
found that in Wales, for instance, ideas about the future
state varied considerably. Folk-lore and medizval poetry
have references to an Underworld in which the dead con-
tinue to live in organized communities and work and
fight as they were accustomed to do upon earth, to happy
islands situated far out to sea, to fairy dwellings below
rivers and lakes where souls exist like fairies, and to the
woods of Caledonia where shades wander about as did

xl CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

the ancestors of the people who migrated from Caledonia

to Wales. In one Welsh poem the Otherworld is re-

ferred to as “the cruel prison of the earth, the abode

of death, the loveless land”.1. The Babylonian Hades

was similarly gloomy and was similarly dreaded. Ishtar

descends to—

The house out of which there is no exit .. .

The house from whose entrance the light is taken,

The place where dust is their (the souls’) nourishment and their
food mud.

Its chiefs are like birds covered with feathers.

But in pre-Dynastic Egypt the worshippers of Osiris,
like a section of the Welsh folks, believed that the Other-
- world was a land of plenty in which corn was sowed and
crops reaped in season. A similar Paradise was believed in
as far north as Scotland. It is referred to in a Perthshire
fairy story. A midwife is taken to a fairy mound to
nurse a fairy child, and is given a green fluid with which
to anoint the eyes of the little one. The fairy woman
moistens the right eye of the midwife with this fluid, and
bids her look. ‘She looked”, the narrative proceeds,
“and saw several of her friends and acquaintances at
work, reaping the corn and gathering the frost. “*Lhis
said the fairy, ‘is the punishment of evil deeds.’”? In
ancient Egypt the fairy would have said “it was “the
reward of good deeds”.

Burial customs afford us no exact evidence regarding
these varying beliefs, which grew up in localities and
were imported from one country to another. In Egypt
the adherents of the cults of Osiris and Ra who believed
in different Paradises mummified their dead, although, in
the one case, happiness in the after state was believed to

1 Celtic Religion, E. Anwyl, pp. 60 et seq.
2 Graham’s Picturesque Sketches of Perthshire.

INTRODUCTION xli

be the reward of good conduct in this life, and, in the
other, of those who by performing ceremonies obtained
knowledge of the formule which were the “Open
Sesames”’ required by departed souls to secure admission
to the boat of the sun.

Similarly, it does not follow that the cremation
custom had the same significance at all periods. In the
Iad the ghost of Patroklos declares that he will never
again return from Hades when he has received his meed
of fire. Modern Hindus burn their dead,! but the soul
may either depart to Paradise or continue its round
through other existences on this earth. In Sanskrit
literature the fire-god, Agni, “the corpse devourer”, con-
ducts souls to the “land of the fathers”. The Persian
fire-worshippers do not cremate their dead, although they
may have done so at one time, but expose them to be
devoured by wild birds. Of special interest is the prac-
tice of the Mongolian Buriats. The bodies of those who
die in autumn and winter are piled up in a log-house in
the midst of a forest. When the cuckoo begins to call,
in May, this house is set on fire and the accumulated
bodies are cremated together. Persons who die during
the summer are burned immediately. That the Aryo-
Indians had knowledge at one time of the belief involved
is suggested by a reference in the Mahabharata. De-
scribing the heaven of Yama, the sage Narada says that
he saw there “all sinners among human beings as also
(those) that have died during the winter solstice”. The
explanation may be that there were lucky and unlucky
hours, days, and months for death as for birth. The

1 Except, as was the case in Rome (Juvenal, XV, 140), the bodies of infants.
Those under eighteen months are in India buried head downwards in jars, Mothers
who die in childbed are not cremated either, but buried.

2 A Journey in Southern Siberta, Jeremiah Curtin, p. 101,

8 Sabha Parva, Section VIII (Roy’s translation, p. 27).

xlii CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

omens at birth which foretold an individual's fate were
supposed to give indication of his manner of death. One
of the Scottish midwife prophecies runs:

Full moon, full sea,

Great man shalt thou be,
But ill deith shalt thou dee."

Omens at death threw light on his fate in the after life.
The Buriat custom has evidently a long history behind it.
Perhaps it was originally believed that those who died
in winter were doomed to exist ever afterwards in cold
and darkness. Such a belief imported into India would
in time cease to have any significance. The new country
had new terrors which supplanted the old, and influenced
the development of religious beliefs.

Among certain peoples who did not believe, like the
Achzans, the Aryo-Indians, and others, that the soul
was transferred to Paradise through the medium of fire,
burning was a punishment. Erring wives in ancient
Egyptian and Scottish folk-tales are burned at the stake.’
Similarly, witches were burned alive. Sir Arthur Evans
has brought together interesting evidence regarding “ the
revival of cremation in Europe in medieval and modern
times to get rid of vampires”.’ Bodies of persons whose
ghosts had become vampires, which attacked sleepers and
sucked the life-blood from their veins, were taken from
tombs and publicly burned. The vampires were thus
prevented from doing further harm. Herodotus tells
that when Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, caused the mummy
of Pharaoh Amasis to be burned, he displeased both the
Persians and the Egyptians. “The Persians”, he says,
“hold fire to be a god, and never by any chance burn

1 Lamont’s Chronicle of Fife, p. 206.

2 Indian Myth and Legend, p. xxxvii, and Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 143.
3 Comptes Rendus du Congres International d’ Archéologie, 1905, Athens, p. 166

INTRODUCTION xliil

their dead. Indeed, this practice is unlawful, both with
them and with the Egyptians—with them for the reason
above mentioned, since they deem it wrong to give the
corpse of a man to a god; and with the Egyptians, be-
cause they believe fire to be a live animal, which eats
whatever it can seize, and then, glutted with the food,
dies with the matter which it feeds upon. Now, to give
a man’s body to be devoured by beasts is in no wise
agreeable to their customs, and, indeed, this is the very
reason why they embalm their dead, namely, to prevent
them from being eaten in the grave by worms.” *

The evidence afforded by the Cretan burial customs
is of special significance. From the earliest times until
the close of the Bronze Age the dead were buried. Then
cremation was introduced by invaders, who are believed
to have been identical with the Acheans of Homer.
The new custom had, in this instance, not only a religious
but an ethnic significance.

Like certain of the Paleolithic tribes in western
Europe, the early Cretans buried their dead in caves and
rock shelters. As caves were dwellings, this was a form
of house-burial. House-tombs have been found in Cretan
as in Babylonian towns. The custom is referred to in
the Ethiopic version of the mythical life of Alexander the
Great. That hero was reputed to have “asked one of
the Brahmans, saying: ‘Have ye no tombs wherein to
bury any man among you who may die?’ And an inter-
preter made answer to him, saying: ‘Man and woman
and child grow up, and arrive at maturity and become
old, and when any one (of them) dieth we bury him in
the place wherein he lived; thus our graves are our
houses. And our God knoweth that we desire this more
than the lust for food and meat which all men have; this

1 Herodotus, III, 16

xiv CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

‘5 our life and manner of dwelling in the darkness of our
tombs.’”! This conversation can never have taken place
in India, but it is of interest in so far as it reflects a belief
with which the author was familiar.

In Paleolithic times a cave was deserted after the
head of the family was buried in it. There were also,
however, burial-caves. The Cro-Magnon people, for
instance, sometimes deposited whole families, or the
members of tribes, in one of these. One cave has yielded
no fewer than seventeen skeletons. Caves and rock-
shelters were similarly utilized in Crete. It became cus-
tomary, however, to construct chamber-tombs, which may
have been imitations of caves. One at Aghia Triadha,
near Phestos, in south-central Crete, is some 30 feet
‘n diameter. The remains of no fewer than 200 skele-
tons of men, women, and children were found in it.
Other chambers adjoining added fifty to this number.
Family tombs of this kind, which were entered by narrow
passages, were sometimes circular, and developed into the
beehive style of tomb found in Mycenz and ‘Tiryns.
They date back to early Minoan times (c. 2800 B.C.).
Others were of rectangular shape, like those found near
Knossos. ‘The Cretans also buried their dead in terra-
cotta chests, in which the bodies lay in crouched position
as in the pre-Dynastic graves of Egypt. These /arnakes
or sarcophagi were probably of Egyptian origin. They
have also been found in Sicily and Italy. Sometimes the
Cretan sarcophagi were profusely decorated. Like the
tombs, they contained vessels, seals, daggers, amulets, &c.
. The Cretans were worshippers of the Great Mother
goddess who inhabited the abode of the buried dead.
She was the Earth Mother. Caves were entrances to
the Underworld over which she presided. In Crete,

1 The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, E. Wallis Budge, pp. 133-4+

(o6z-6ge sa8ed 295) “peep ayt jo 3[Nd aY3 YIM PoIoUUOD Sous0S YMA poquied st Sutsea09 raysejd wry? oy,7,

VHAVIUL VIHDVY LY GNNOd “LSHHO V ANIT AYdVHS ‘SNOVHdOOUVS ANOLSAWNIT

INTRODUCTION xlv

‘where no temples were erected, votive offerings were
'deposited in caves, the most famous of which were those
‘on Mount Dicte and Mount Ida. According to Greek
legend, the mother-goddess Rhea gave birth to Zeus in
‘a Cretan cave. The ferocious mother-goddesses of Eng-
land and Scotland, as is shown (Chapter III), were cave-
dwellers. Paleolithic artists drew and painted their
\magical figures of animals in the depths of great caves.

Demeter of the Grecian Phigalia—the Black Ceres—
lived in a cave, which is still regarded as sacred. This
deity, who is believed to be a form of the Cretan Great
Mother, was also associated with stone circles. Pausanias,
writing of the town of Hermione in the Peloponnese,
says that near it “there is a circle of huge unhewn stones,
and inside this circle they perform the sacred rites of
Demeter ”’.’

Stone circles, single standing-stones, and groups of
stones like those at Karnak in Brittany were erected at
burial-places. Offerings were made to the dead whose

spirits had become associated with the Earth Mother. |
These spirits might be summoned from their tombs to |
make revelations. When Odin visited the Underworld /

to consult the Vala (witch or prophetess) regarding
Balder’s fate—

Round he rode to a door on the eastward
Where he knew was a witch’s grave,
He sang there spells of the dead to the Vala,

Needs she must rise—a corpse—and answer.?

Folk-memories of the ancient custom of summoning
the spirit of the dead still survive in rural districts. An
archeologist who recently conducted investigations at a
stone circle in northern Scotland asked a ploughman if

1 Pausanias, Il, 34. 2 The Elder Edda, O. Bray, p. 241.

xlvi CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

he knew anything regarding it. The answer was to this
effect: “It is said that if you walk round it three times
against the sun at midnight, you will raise the devil.”
Our demonology is the last stage of pagan mythology.
The summoning of the devil, or the spirits of the Under-
world, was a ceremony performed for purposes of divina-
tion, or to compel the aid of infernal beings. As only
one grave is sometimes found in stone circles, it may be
that a circle was erected when a great chief, or great priest
or priestess, died, so that the ghost might be propitiated
and called up to assist his or her kinsfolk in times of
need. A patriarch or teacher would thus be worshipped
after death like a god, and especially as a guide to the
spirit world. The Babylonian Gilgamesh was a hero who
first entered the cave which led to Paradise. So was the
Indian Yama; he was the first man to “find the path
for many”, and he became god of the dead. Osiris, as
Apuatu, was “ opener of the ways’’, and similarly reigned
in Hades. The Cretan Minos is in the Odyssey a law-
giver, like Osiris, of the Underworld. In Greek mytho-
logy the guide of travellers, who conducts the soul on his
last journey, is Hermes. His name appears to be derived
from herma, which signifies a cairn or a standing-stone.
The Thracian “square Hermes” was a pillar surmounted
by a human head—a form which is evidently a link
between a standing-stone and the statue of an anthropo-
- morphic deity. It may be that some of the anthropo-
morphic deities were simply deified ancestors, priests,
or priestesses.

The Great Mother, who was worshipped by the
Cretans and other pre-Hellenic peoples in south-eastern
Europe, was the goddess of birth and death, of fertility
and fate. As the ancestress of mankind she gathered to
her abode in the Underworld the ghosts of her progeny.

INTRODUCTION xvii
She was the source of the food-supply, which she might

withhold at will by raising storms, causing floods, or
sending blight and disease. It was important that account
should be taken of her varying moods—that her inten-
tions should be ascertained by means of oracles, so that

she might be propitiated, or controlled by the performance)
of magical ceremonies. She assumed various forms at’
different seasons and under different circumstances. Now |

she was the earth serpent, or the serpent of the deep—
the Babylonian Tiamat—and anon the raven of death, or
the dove of fertility; she might also appear as the moun-
tain hag followed by savage beasts, or as a composite
monster in a gloomy cavern, like the horse-headed
Demeter of Phigalia. The beautiful northern goddess of
the Greek sculptors was a poetic creation of post-Homeric
times, when her benevolent character only was remem-
bered. Still, Rhea ever retained her lion, which crouched
beside her throne—a faint memory of her ancient savage
character.

The Achzan conquerors who burned their dead were
worshippers of the sky- and thunder-god, the Great
Father. They believed that the souls of the dead
ascended to a Paradise above the clouds. Hercules
burned himself on a pyre and fled heavenwards as an
eagle; the soul of the Roman Emperor ascended from
the pyre on which his image was placed, on the back of
an eagle. The eagle was the messenger of Zeus, and the
god himself may have originally been an eagle. The Zu
eagle of Babylonia and the Garuda eagle of India were
ancient deities; indeed, Tammuz, in his Nin-girsu form
at Lagash was depicted as a lion-headed eagle. Cyrus
claimed to be an Achemenian—that is, a descendant
of the patriarchal Akhamanish, who was reputed to have
been protected and fed during childhood by an eagle.

xlviii CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

The double-headed eagle of the Hittites, which now
figures in the royal arms of Russia, was a deity of great
antiquity. In Egypt one Paradise was the Underworld
of Osiris and the other the Paradise above the sky to
which Horus ascended in the form of a falcon. Baby-
lonian mythology makes references to the Paradises of
Anu and Bel and Ishtar, to which the patriarch Etana
ascends on the back of an eagle, as well as to the island
Paradise discovered by Gilgamish and the gloomy Under-
world where souls eat dust and drink muddy water. So
do the beliefs of mingled peoples survive in complex
mythologies.

The archeological evidence of Crete and Greece
shows clearly that the cremation custom had an ethnic
significance. Whence then came the Achzans of Homer
who were the cremating people, or at any rate were
identified with them in tradition? Professor Ridgeway’
has summarized a mass of important archeological data
regarding prehistoric burial customs, and writes: “ From
this rapid survey it is now clear to the reader that cre-
mation was not developed in the countries lying around
the Mediterranean, whilst on the other hand it was
already practised in Central Europe, possibly even in the
transition period from stone to bronze. But as the
Acheans practised it at least 1000 B.c., there is a very
high probability that they had come into Greece from
Central Europe, where the fair-haired peoples were cer-
tainly burning their dead before the end of the Bronze
Age, or at least 1200 B.c.”’ He regards with favour the
view that the ancestors of the cremating Hindus—the
Aryans and Indo-Europeans of the philologists—migrated
from Europe into Asia before the Iron Age.

The theory that the Achzans were a Germanic people

1 Early Age of Greece, Vol. I, pp. 481 et seq.

it

rE Se OF TS FY

thr

VOTIVE OFFERINGS FROM THE DICTEAN CAVE

The three upper rows are bronze objects: those in the two lower rows are made of terra-cotta.

(See page xly; also Chap. XIII, pages 297-299)

INTRODUCTION xlix

and that the cremation custom originated in the forests
of Germany has not received wide acceptance. Account
must be taken of the archaic cremation custom of the
Mongolian Buriats which has been referred to. No
trace of seasonal burnings have been found in Europe.
The Achzan dead might be cremated at any time of the
year. Were the ancestors of the Buriats in touch at
some remote period with a people among whom cre-
mation was practised before it obtained in Central
Europe?

The earliest evidence yet obtained of cremation comes
from southern France. M. Verneau, who is the authority
on the burial customs of the Paleolithic cave-dwellers of
Grimaldi, has found that among the Cro-Magnon peoples
of the Third Interglacial Period ceremonial interment by
inhumation was the general rule. He found, however,
a single instance of cremation. Offerings similar to those
found with buried bodies were associated with the burned
bones. Of course, we know nothing about the beliefs
regarding the destiny of the soul which obtained among
the Cro-Magnon peoples. The majority of these, it may
be noted, were tall, averaging about 5 feet 10 inches in
stature. M. Verneau, however, discovered two skeletons
of alien type which he refers to as members of “a new
race”’.

Next in chronological order, but separated by thou-
sands of years, come the Early Neolithic cremating
people of Palestine who dwelt in the Gezer caves. “One
of the caves”, writes Professor Macalister, “had evi-
dently been used by this people as a place for the disposal
of the dead. The body, placed at the sill of a chimney-
aperture that provided a draught, was burnt, the remains
becoming ultimately scattered and trampled over the

whole surface of the floor. From one point of view
(0 808 ) 4

] CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

this is unfortunate: the bones were too much destroyed
by the action of the fire to make any very extensive
examination of their ethnological character possible. All
we can say is that we have to deal with a non-Semitic
race, of low stature, with thick skulls, and showing evi-
dence of the great muscular strength that is essential to
savage life.’ We have no knowledge of the beliefs con-
nected with the Neolithic cremation custom in Palestine.

Among the Australian natives the body of the dead
is sometimes cremated. The ashes are afterwards placed
in a skin bag which 1s carried about. Various other
funerary practices, including the eating of the corpse,
have been recorded. ‘The belief regarding the soul’s
destiny, among the Australian cremators, is neither Aryo-
Indian nor Achzan in character.

The cremation custom of the Bronze Age had in
Europe a precise significance as a ceremony. It was not
a punishment, or a safeguard against attack by vampires,
but a process whereby the souls of the dead were enabled
to pass to another state of existence. The cremating
invaders swept westward and north and south and formed
military aristocracies. In Sweden only the wealthy people
were cremated. ‘The evidence of British archeology
shows that cremation and inhumation were practised in
some districts simultaneously, and that even one member
—perhaps the chief—of a family might be cremated while
the others were buried. Ultimately cremation died out
altogether in Ancient Britain. The earlier faith prevailed.
In southern Europe, however, it lingered on until early
Christian times, as did mummification in Egypt. The
fact that the Christians were opposed to these distinctive
burial customs emphasizes that they had a religious sig-
nificance.

1A History of Civilization in Palestine, pp. 15, 16.

INTRODUCTION li

Dr. Dérpfeld* has urged the hypothesis that the
Acheans burned their dead only when engaged in distant
wars, and practised inhumation in the homeland. He
thinks that cremation arose from the custom of scorching
bodies prior to burial for hygienic reasons.

No traces of partial burning have been found in the
pre-Dynastic graves of Egypt, or in the vast majority
of similar graves in Europe. Dr. Dérpfeld refers, how-
ever, to charred fragments found in tombs at Mycene
and elsewhere in support of his theory. Here again the
evidence of Crete is of special importance. In the tombs
near Knossos have been found, in addition to food
vessels, clay chafing-pans and a plaster tripod, filled with
charcoal. These may have been portable hearths in-
tended to warm and comfort the dead, or may, on the
other hand, have been utilized in connection with magical
rites. Deposits of charcoal are often found in Bronze
Age graves throughout Europe, and it is suggested that
the food intended for the nourishment of the dead was
cooked in the grave. On the other hand, the grave fire
may have been lit to charm the corpse against the attacks
of evil spirits. Asarule, the charcoal deposits are not very
considerable. That fires were associated with early burials
is suggested by the folk-belief about “death lights” which
are seen before a sudden death takes place travelling along
a highway, entering a churchyard, and passing over the spot
where a grave is to be opened. Early burials took place at
night,” and the leader may have cast his torch into the open
grave so that it might be used by the dead on the journey
to the Otherworld. Hermes, the guide of souls, was at
one time a god of night and dispensed sleep and dreams.

1 Melanges Nicole (in honour of Jules Nicole), 1905, Geneva, pp. 95 ef seg.
2 For particulars of the custom of using torches and lights at funerals, see Brand’s
Popular Antiquities, Vol. Il, pp. 276 et seg. (1899 ed.).

li CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

The Cretan portable fire-vessels were, perhaps, sub-
stitutes for torches. Lamps are also Sound in graves.
The few partial burnings in the graves of Mycenz and
elsewhere may have been due to accidents at burials. Of
course, it is also possible that the individuals met their
deaths in house fires.

It will be seen from the evidence passed under
review that the theory of the Germanic origin of the
cremation custom is hardly conclusive. Evidence may
yet be forthcoming that it persisted somewhere in Europe
or Asia from Palzolithic times. The evidence afforded
by the Gezer cremation cave is suggestive in this con-
nection. As cremation had during the Bronze Age a
distinct religious significance, the theory is possible that
it was an essential tenet of a cult formed by some great
teacher like Buddha, Zoroaster, or Mohammed, who welded
together his followers by the strongest ties which bind
humanity—the ties of a religious faith and organization.
The cremating peoples were conquerors. ‘They achieved
ascendancy over the tribes of Indo-European speech who
had been migrating into northern India for several cen-
turies between 2000 B.c. and 1200 B.c.; they have left
traces of their influence in northern Asia to the present
day among the Mongolian Buriats, whose earth and air
spirits are called Burkanus or “ masters”. In Europe
they appear to have subdued a considerable part of the
Danubian cultural area, and formed there, as elsewhere,
a military aristocracy. It is uncertain whether they owed
their successes to superior organization or to the use of
iron. The Aryo-Indians, in Rig-Vedic times, used a
metal called ayas, a word which may have denoted bronze
or iron, or both. In Brahmanic times iron was called
syama ayas, “swarthy ayas”, or simply syama and also
karsnayasa, “black ayas”, while copper or bronze was

INTRODUCTION liti

known as /ohayasa, “red ayas”.1 The Homeric Achzans
used bronze and iron, but the earlier bands of Achzans
who drifted into southern Greece and reached Crete used
bronze only, and, it is of significance to note, did not
cremate their dead. Possibly, therefore, the late Achzans
were led by the cremating intruders of Thrace and had
adopted their religious beliefs, which they fused with their
own. Geometric pottery and iron weapons were intro-
duced into southern Greece when cremation began to be
practised there.

The fusion of the various peoples who struggled for
supremacy in Greece before and during the early Hellenic
period culminated in the growth of its historic civilization.
But the influence of its earliest culture, that of Crete, ever
remained. It first entered the Peloponnesian peninsula,
and although it was overshadowed there and elsewhere
during the long period of unrest which followed the
Dorian invasion, it continued to develop in contact with
alien cultures in the Anatolian colony of Ionia, which in
turn proved to be “the little leaven which leavened the
whole lump” once again.

So far, nothing has been said regarding the evidence
of language, of which so much was made by the scholars
of a past generation. But can much really be said with
certainty in this connection? The idea that the peoples
of Indo-European speech were of common racial origin
and inheritors of a common stock of religious beliefs no
longer obtains. ‘‘ Language is shown by experience’, as
Mr. Hogarth says, “to be changed by conquest more easily
than type of civilization. . . . The Turkish conquering
minority (of Asia Minor) has imposed its tongue on the
aborigines of Ionia, Lydia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia alike.

1 Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, Macdonald and Keith, Vol. I, pp. 31, 32, and
I51.

liv CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Yet the type of civilization and the fundamental cult-
beliefs of the people are not those of the true Turks.”
Referring to Greece, he says that “later Greek speech
may have been fundamentally mid-European, largely con-
taminated with Aegean survivals; or it may have been
fundamentally AEgean with mid-European intrusions, as
our own language is fundamentally Anglo-Saxon largely
contaminated by the speech of Norman conquerors”.

The chapters which follow begin with the Palzolithic
Age in Pleistocene times, and the reader is afterwards
presented with a popular account of the archeological
discoveries in Crete and Greece which have thrown so
much light on the growth of pre-Hellenic civilization.
Classical traditions are also drawn upon, and comparisons
made between Cretan and Greek deities. Comparative
evidence is provided in dealing with the growth and sig-
nificance of primitive beliefs, and various theories which
have been advocated are either indicated or summarized.
As environment has ever had a formative influence in the
development of religious beliefs and in determining the
habits of life of which these are an expression, descriptions
of natural scenery in various parts of the A gean area are
given to enable the reader to visualize the conditions of
life under which pre- Hellenic civilization grew and
flourished. In the historical narrative the chief periods
of the contemporary civilizations of Egypt, Babylonia,
Assyria, and the land of the Hittites are noted, and there
are frequent references to early Cretan connections along
the trade routes, by land and sea, with the remote an-
cestors of the peoples of the present day in Central and
Western Europe.

1 Tonia and the East, pp. 105-7.

MYTHS OF CRETE AND
PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

CHAPTER I

Primitive Europeans of the Glacial and
Inter-glacial Periods

Geological and Mythical Ages of the World—Myths as Products of
Environment—The Deluge and Great Winter Legends—New World Cata-
clysms—Doctrines of Decadence and Evolution in World’s Ages Myths—
Sages of the “Wandering Jew” Type—The Monsters of Geology and
Mythology—Story of the Pleistocene Age—First Glacial Period —Mauer
(Heidelberg) Man—Second Glacial Period—The Age of Chellean Culture—
The Piltdown Skull—Acheulian Culture Stage—Third Glacial Period and
Mousterian Man—Cro-Magnon Race and Grimaldi “ Bushmen ”—Aurigna-
cian Cave Pictures and Beliefs—Solutrean Culture—Fourth Glacial Period
and Magdalenian Man—The Problem of Eoliths—Approximate Duration of
Paleolithic Age.

Tue system which obtains among modern scientists, of
dividing the history of the earth into geological epochs
and the pre-history of man into cultural periods, was
anticipated by the priestly theorists of ancient civilizations,
who established the doctrine of the mythical Ages of the
World. These early teachers were, no doubt, as greatly
concerned. about justifying their own pretensions and the
tenets of their cults as in gratifying the growing thirst for

knowledge among the educated classes. When they
1

2 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

undertook to reveal the process of creation and throw
light on the origin and purpose of mankind, they exalted
local deities in opposition to those regarded supreme at
rival centres of culture and political influence. Many
rival systems of a national religion were thus perpetuated.
But the various city priesthoods of a particular country
found it necessary to deal also with problems of common
concern. Among other things, they had to account for
the various races of whom they had knowledge and to
give divine sanction to existing social conditions; nor
could they overlook the accidental discoveries which were
occasionally made of the relics of elder and unknown
peoples and the bones of extinct animals.

These mythology-makers, of course, possessed but
meagre knowledge of their country’s past, and were
accordingly compelled to draw freely upon their imagi-
nations; but they should not be regarded on that account
as merely dreamers of dreams and inventors of miraculous
stories. Indications are forthcoming which show that
they were not wholly devoid of the scientific spirit. They
were close observers of natural phenomena, and sometimes
made deductions which, considering the narrowness of
areas available to them for investigation, were not un-
worthy of thinking men. It seemed perfectly reasonable
to the Babylonian and Egyptian scientists, who saw land
growing from accumulations of river-borne silt, and desert
wastes rendered cultivable by irrigation, to conclude, for
stance, that water was the primary element and the
source of all that existed.

This doctrine, which holds that the Universe is
derived from one particular form of matter, has been
called “ Materialistic Monism”. Ultimately, when mind
was exalted above matter, the belief obtained that the
inanimate forces of nature were subject to the control of

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS 3

the supreme Mind, which was the First Cause. This
later doctrine is known as “ Idealistic Monism”. It was
embraced by various cults in Babylonia, India, and Egypt.
In the latter country, for instance, the great god of Mem-
phis was addressed:

Ptah, the great, is the mind and tongue of the gods... .

It (the mind) is the one which bringeth forth every successful
issue. . .

It was the fashioner of all gods...

At a time when every divine word

Came into existence by the thought of the mind

And the command of the tongue.?

In Egypt and Babylonia, where inundations of river
valleys were of periodic occurrence, and where, at rare
intervals, floods of excessive volume caused great destruc-
tion and loss of life, and even brought about political
changes, it was concluded that the old Ages were ended
and new Ages inaugurated by world-devastating deluges.
: The deductions of the early scientists in northern

Europe were similarly drawn from the evidence afforded
by environment, and similarly influenced by persistent
modes of thought. They saw shoals formed and beaches
overlaid by sand washed up by the sea from, as it ap-
peared, some sand-creating source, and conceived that
on the floor of ocean there stood a great “ World Mill”
propelled by giantesses, which ground the bodies of
primeval world-giants into earth meal. “’Tis said”, a
saga author set forth, “that far out, off yonder ness, the
Nine Maids of the Island mill stir amain the host-cruel
skerry-quern—they who in ages past ground Hamlet’s
meal. The good chieftain furrows the hull’s lair with
his ship’s beaked prow.”?

1 Breasted’s History of Egypt, p. 357:
2 Translation from Amlodi Saga, by F. York Powell.

4 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

In the Elder Edda the god of the mill, who appears to
be identical with Frey and the original Hamlet, is called
Mundlefore, “the handle-mover”’ :

The Mover of the Handle is father of Moon
And the father eke of Sun.

This “World Mill” caused the heavens to revolve round
a fixed point marked by the polar star, which was called
veraldar nagli, the “ world-spike ”.

Believing that sun and moon rose from the ocean,
and that therefore light came from darkness, they con-

cluded that winter preceded summer at the beginning.

Untold winters ere Earth was fashioned
Roaring Bergelm was born;

His father was Thrudgelm of Mighty Voice,
Loud-sounding Ymer his grandsire.!

In the north it was observed also that growth was
promoted when the ice melted, and the teachers reasoned
that the first being, Ymer, came into existence when
sparks from the southland, or “poison drops from the

sea”, fell upon the primeval icebergs, and caused drops
of trickling water to fertilize the clay.

From Stormy-billow sprang poison drops
Which waxed into Jotun form.

The Babylonians, on the other hand, who were familiar
with the part played by reeds in accumulating mud and
binding river-banks, taught that—

Marduk (Merodach) laid a reed upon the face of the waters.
He formed dust and poured it out beside the reed... .
He formed mankind.?

1Bergelm and Thrudgelm, nature-giants, and Ymer, the primeval world-giant.
The Elder Edda, O. Bray, pp. 47, 493 and Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 1 et seg.
2 The Seven Tablets of Creation, L. W. King, p. 129.

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS 5

It may be, too, that the ancient teachers, who framed
creation myths and expounded local forms of the doctrine
of the World’s Ages, mingled at times with their pseudo-
scientific deductions and brilliant imaginings dim and
confused racial traditions of early migrations and varied
experiences in different areas of settlement. Some of
these traditions may have had origin before the dawn
of the Neolithic or Late Stone Age. As will be shown,
certain customs, which are familiar to students of ancient
civilizations, were prevalent among primitive peoples in
the vast Paleolithic or Early Stone Age. With these
customs may have survived in localities legends asso-
ciated with or based upon them. The possibility re-
mains, therefore, that in Persian mythology there are
memories not only of an area of settlement among the
mountains where severe winters were as greatly dreaded
as exceptional floods in river valleys, but even of one of
the last recurring phases of the Ice Age. A poetic narra-
tive relates that the patriarch Yima, who afterwards be-
came Lord of the Dead, constructed a shelter to afford
safe protection for mankind and their domesticated animals
during the “evil winter”, with its “hard, killing frost”’.
He had been forwarned of this approaching world-disaster
by the supreme god Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd). Perhaps
the “shelter” was a southern valley to which the proto-
Persians were compelled to migrate on account of the
growing severity of successive winters and the lowering
of the perpetual snow-line around mountain- fringed
plateaus they were accustomed to inhabit. It is related
in the Avesta, one of the Persian sacred books, that
“before the winter the land had meadows. ... The
water was wont to flow over it and the snow to melt.”
A similar prolonged winter is foretold in Icelandic
mythology. According to the Prose Edda, which is a

6 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

patchwork of fragmentary legends of uncertain origin
and antiquity, it will precede the destruction of the
universe by the giants of frost and fire (lightning). “In
the first place will come the winter, called Fimbul winter,
during which snow will fall from the four corners of the
world; the frosts will be very severe, the wind piercing,
the weather tempestuous, and the sun impart no
gladness.” *

From the Voluspa poem of the Elder Edda we gather
details of —

A Sword Age, Axe Age—shields are cloven,
A Wind Age, Wolf Age, ere the world sinks.

Then, after describing a period of universal destruction,
the soothsayer proceeds:

I see uprising a second time

Earth from the ocean, green anew:

The waters fall, on high the eagle
Flies o’er the fell and catches fish.?

Various accounts of universal cataclysms come from
the New World. Representative of these are the legends
of the Arawaks of North Brazil regarding periods of flood,
storm, and darkness, and those of the Mexicans, which
deal with the destruction of early races by deluges caused
by several succeeding suns perishing from lack of sus-
tenance.

The most highly developed doctrinal systems of World
Ages which have survived from antiquity are found, how-
ever, in the Mythologies of India, Greece, and Ireland.
There is more than one account in Aryo-Indian litera-
ture of the periodic Ages called Yugas. These are em-
braced in longer Ages of sufficient duration to satisfy the

1Mallet’s Northern Antiquities, p. 451.
2 The Elder Edda, O. Bray, pp. 291, 295+

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS wy)

requirements of modern geologists. Four Yugas extend
over a period of “divine years” equal to 4,320,000 years
of mortals, and a thousand of the combined Yugas com-
prise a “Day of Brahma”’, the individualized “ World
Soul”. The Yugas begin with the Krita or Perfect
Age, which is White, and decline from that to the Treta,
_ which is Red, and the Dwapara, which is Yellow, to Kali
Yuga, “the Black or Iron Age”.

Hesiod, in his Work ana Days, begins the Greek system
with the perfect Golden Age, which is followed by the
Silver and Bronze Ages, and the two Ages of Heroes
and Iron, which may have been local subdivisions of the
fourth Age, represented in India by Kali Yuga.

’ Both in India and Greece, man, it will be noted, was
\believed to have relapsed from a primitive state of per-
ifection. The system found in Ireland, which was prob-
ably imported from Gaul with the doctrine of transmigra-
tion of souls and the custom of widow-burning or slaying,
follows, on the other hand, an evolutionary process. The
first Irish Age, that of Partholon and his race, is an Age
of folly. It is followed by Nemed’s Age, which was dis-
tinguished for cruelty, and the Age of the Fir Bolgs,
in which the power of evil was supreme. Then comes
the Danann Age of benevolent deities and heroes, who
are the reputed “ancestors of the men of learning in
Erin”. The last Age is the Milesian, and during it
St. Patrick reached Ireland and preached Christianity.

This ancient doctrine of the World’s Ages, which
may be traced in Egypt and Babylonia, where certain
gods lived for periods upon earth as human kings, was
adapted to suit the needs of different cults in different
areas of localization. In India the four great castes were
each connected with a Yuga: the Brahmans had origin in

_ the White Age, the Kshatriyas (military aristocrats) in the

8 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Red Age, the Vaisyas (traders and agriculturists) in the
Yellow Age, and the Sudras (Dravidians and pre-Dra-
vidians) in the Black Age. In Greece an Age was devoted
to the Trojan heroes, and in Ireland the Fir Bolgs,
Dananns, and Milesians were identified with existing
racial types whom St. Patrick found there.

One of the versions of the Indian legend of Mythical
Ages is related by the deathless sage Markandeya, who
lived through all the Yugas, and was protected during
the Deluge by the child-god Narayana. The Irish account
was put into the mouth of Tuan MacCarell. He had
been a contemporary of Partholon, and afterwards existed
for periods as a stag, a boar, a vulture or eagle, and a
salmon. In the end his salmon form was devoured by
the wife of King Carell, with the result that he was re-
born as her son. Another sage of this class is the famous
Magus of the Icelandic Bragda Magus saga, who renewed
his youth periodically by casting his skin. He also figures
in the Charlemagne romances.

If the ancient teachers, who professed to have received
revelations from sages like the “ Wandering Jew”, had
been acquainted with the scientific data which is now
available, their narratives of past Ages would have de-
scribed greater changes than ever they conceived of. Nor
would these be lacking either in picturesqueness or ima-
ginative appeal. The priestly sages would have no cause
- to lament with the poet:

Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
‘There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof and texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.

Even greater and more ferocious monsters than were

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS 9

dreamt of in their philosophy might have figured in their
wonder-compelling and fearsome legends. Instead of the
composite demons of Egypt and Babylonia, the Eur-Asian
dragons, the flying serpents of the Nile valley, and the
great snakes of ocean, they could have told of the gigantic
reptiles of the Triassic and Jurassic systems, the great
mammals of the Tertiary Period, and those contemporaries
of man in the Pleistocene Age, the hairy mammoths,
bulky with fat and fur, the fierce woolly rhinoceroses,
the huge cave-bears, and the immense sabre-toothed
tigers. No ancient legend of fabled monsters surpasses
the modern scientist’s account of extinct gigantic fauna.
Nor can the creation-myths on Egyptian papyri, Baby-
lonian bricks, or Indian palm-leaf books approach in
grandness and charm the dramatic story of the four great
geological Ages of the World.

The author of the Tuan MacCarell legend would in
our day begin his narrative with the dawn of the Pleisto-
cene Age, which endured for at least 620,000 years, and
was yet much shorter than any of the four Tertiary Ages
—the Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, or Pliocene.

In the post-Pliocene, or early Pleistocene period,
Tuan, let it be supposed, awakens from magic sleep in
Europe. He gazes with wonder on forests of strange
and mighty trees. Monstrous wild animals come and go.
Several resemble elephants, and the greatest of these is
the long-tusked mastodon of colossal bulk. Hippopotami
snort in the rivers, on the banks of which crouch, basking
in sunshine, ponderous Dinotheriums, resembling sea-
cows, with downward-curving tusks and short trunks.
Across verdurous plains gallop herds of little horses with
divided hoofs. The dreaded sabre-toothed tiger crouches
in the jungle ready to pounce upon its prey.

Tuan, who alternately sleeps for long centuries and

10 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

wanders about the earth like the legendary Jew, continues
his narrative. ‘When next I awoke”, he tells, “1 found
that Europe had been completely transformed. No great
forests flourished on its central plains; bare stretches of
frozen ground extended far and near. From northern
Germany to the Pole, valleys and rivers were shrouded by
ice and seas were frozen over. Great mountain-peaks
towered grimly above curving glaciers like rocky islands
in a foam-white ocean. Icebergs drifted down the Atlantic
past the coast of Spain. This was the First Glacial
Period.

“ When next I awoke the ice was vanishing, the rivers
surged from the melting glaciers, many valleys were
flooded, and vegetation flourished. In the years that
followed I saw the forests extending northward from the
Mediterranean coast, and the ocean ebbing gradually
farther and farther away, owing to the widespread elevation
of land, until great islands became uplands in vast plains,
and continents linked with continents around the world.
I must describe Europe as it appeared to me before I next
fell asleep. The Mediterranean Sea was divided into two
great lakes when Italy became attached to a triangular
plain which jutted out from the north African coast.
The Strait of Gibraltar was closed, and a broad valley
united Spain with Morocco. Corsica and Sardinia formed
a promontory when the Gulf of Genoa vanished, and the
Balearic Isles were mountains on a finger of land attached
to western Spain. The Baltic Sea became a shrunken
inland lake, the English Channel and the North Sea had
disappeared. The British Isles were then joined to the
Continent, and the plains which enclosed them extended
far westward beyond Land’s End, the western coast-line
of Ireland and that of the Scottish Hebrides, and stretched
north-eastward beyond the Shetland Isles to the coast of

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS II

Norway. A “Jland-bridge”, which shrank to a narrow
neck 100 miles north-west of Cape Wrath, united Scotland
and Iceland, and narrowed again ere it met the extended
_ coast of Greenland. The Rivers Elbe and Rhine drained
the broad valley which had been the North Sea, and were
united about 150 miles eastward from the Aberdeenshire
coast after the Rhine had received the waters of the Forth
and Tay. The Conon poured through the valley which
had been the Moray Firth, and, sweeping eastward past
the Orkney and Shetland Islands, entered the sea 20
miles westward from the mouth of the Elbe. The Seine
cut through the valley of the English Channel, and the
Severn united, 100 miles westward from Land’s End,
with a river flowing from a long narrow loch which
divided Ireland from Scotland, and extended southward
to Carnsore Point in Wexford.

“Over the Eur-African land-bridges came many of
the great animals which I saw during the first period of
the Pleistocene Age. Attracted by the genial temperature,
even the rhinoceros came north, and with the sabre-toothed
tiger prowled on the upland plains of England, where I
saw also the giant sloth, the hippopotamus, the mastodon,
the triple-toed horse, great tortoises, the giant fallow deer,
the well-armoured glyptodon,} as big as an ox, and nume-
rous great snakes and nimble apes.

“For a long period I searched in vain for traces of
mankind, but at length I discovered a tribe of most primi-
tive savages at Mauer, on the banks of the River Neckar,
then very broad and deep, near where Heidelberg now
stands. They hunted down the horse and the elk, and
dreaded greatly the rhinoceros and the cave-lion. Their
homes were among the branches of high trees. In aspect
they were extremely repulsive: they had low, sharply-

1 Resembling the armadillo.
(0 808 ) 5

12 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

retreating foreheads, squat noses, big bulging mouths, and
chinless jaws.! I never saw these savages except in this
First Interglacial Period.

“When next I awoke from the slumber of centuries
I found that Europe had once more been transformed.
The Mediterranean Sea had snapped the Italian land-
bridge and flowed through the Dardanelles to the Black
Sea; a blue strait separated Gibraltar from Morocco. The
British Islands were entirely isolated. Roaring tides
swept up and down the English Channel, and the broad
North Sea, overswept by foam-churning tempest, was
dotted over by innumerable icebergs. Each succeeding
winter the ocean encroached farther and farther inland,
burying in deep sand-banks the great trunks of forest trees,
creeping up river valleys and forming stony beaches where
wild flowers had bloomed and birds had carolled and built
their nests. At length the advancing billows shaped out
a rough shore-line round the island coasts over 40 feet
above their present level. In time the land was re-elevated
and the sea shrank back again.

“The snow-line of Scottish mountains crept down
gradually lower and lower, and glaciers appeared once
more. Ultimately vast fields of ice jutted across the
North Sea, and the Baltic remained frozen during the
months of summer. Icebergs were stranded on Dogger
Bank and drifted down the English Channel in early
summer through veils of white fog into the Bay of Biscay
and round Cape Finisterre.

“Ere 1 went to sleep again the ice-fields had obliterated
Holland and Belgium and crept up the Elbe valley almost

to the plain of Bohemia, where the climate was sub-arctic

1 The jaw-bone of the earliest European was found in a Mauer sand-pit, 78 feet from
the surface. Sollas holds that this primitive German belonged to none of the existing
races of mankind. The jaw-bone has Simian characteristics.

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS Bt

and tundra conditions prevailed as in northern Siberia at
the present time. Scotland, Ireland, and Wales were ice-
locked, and England was covered over as far south as
Essex on the east and Gloucester on the west, except
where the battling glaciers left bare patches in the middle
districts and in the East Riding of Yorkshire. This was
the Second Glacial Period. When it had reached its
maximum, I wandered southward through France, then
a dreary waste, and saw herds of musk-oxen and reindeer,
lumbering woolly rhinoceroses, and fat mammoths with
great recurving tusks and shaggy red manes.
“J had sought shelter from a blinding dust-storm in
a cave on a bare hill-side, and slept there. When next
I awoke and crept forth, I found myself in a deep shady
forest. It was a fragrant morning of bright sunshine, and
although it seemed to be midsummer, the sweet spring
season had not yet spent itself. The rivers at this, the
dawn of the Second Inter-glacial Period, ran broad and deep,
swollen by the melting glaciers, but they shrank gradually
as weeks of heat and dryness went past. Wide shallow
lakes grew smaller each succeeding summer until they
vanished entirely, and their dark beds grew verdant with
long grasses. When I went northward I found that the
British Isles were once again a part of the Continent.
The African hippopotamus snorted in the Thames, the
rhinoceros lumbered along the plains of the English
Channel, and through the forests of the North Sea valley
herds of elephants ranged as far north as the banks of the
Forth. I saw many tribes of human beings. I first met
them at Chelles, on the banks of the Seine, 8 miles east-
ward from the site of Paris. The Chellean men were of
higher type than the grotesque tree-dwellers of Mauer.
Their dark skins bespoke their southern origin, and they
resembled certain tribes of Australian savages. They

14 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

were entirely devoid of clothing. ‘The men carried long
staves, which were sharpened to points, with which they
speared fish and hunted the little wild horse. I saw them
chipping flint and shaping “ hand-axes”,’ which they used
for a variety of purposes—cutting branches from trees,
skinning and dividing animals, and weapons. They also
made small flint scrapers and small flint daggers with
rough curved hefts.

“1 saw these men hunting in England and in Central
and Western Europe. They crossed over to Africa by the
Italian land-bridge, round the rock of Gibraltar, and
along the Palestinian coast, and they were numerous in
Persia and India. Ere I fell asleep I was transported
round the world, and saw thousands of human beings
following the edible animals over the northern land-bridge
from Asia to Canada, and down the western sea-coast to
South America. Then I slumbered again.

“Long centuries went past as 1 slept. When next
I awoke I found that Europe had once again become
changed. ‘The sea was washing round the shores of the
British Isles, and the Italian land-bridge to Africa had
been severed. Crete was no longer a part of the main-
land, and the green mountains which had towered on the
well-watered valley connecting Greece with Asia Minor
were islands in the Aegean Sea. The temperature had
suffered decline. Summer was shorter and winter longer
- and of growing severity. During the warm weather the
southern animals wandered through France, and, when
the snow began to fall, the mammoth, the woolly rhino-
ceros, and the reindeer came down from the north in
search of food. I saw new types of humanity which had

1The so-called coup-de-poing of the French archeologists; also named “ bouchers”,
after M. Boucher de Perthes, who half a century ago identified them as primitive arti-
facts of human contemporaries of extinct wild animals.

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS 1

arrived from Asia. They mingled with Chellean men in
some localities, and in others fought with them for pos-
session of hunting-grounds. Many tribes were isolated
in Britain when the land was lowered and the sea advanced.
There were Asiatics in Sussex, and I saw some camping
on the banks of the Ouse at Piltdown, near Uckfield.t
During the winter these people sought shelter in caves.

“The change of climate had intensified the struggle for
existence, and sharpened the wits of men. At St. Acheul,
at Amiens, in the Somme valley, 1 found the flint-workers
displaying increased skill and producing several new
implements which the altered conditions of life had made
necessary. Acheulian man had achieved a considerable
degree of progress in other directions. Those tribes
which remained in western and central Europe, owing to
the winter season found it necessary to provide them-
selves with skin clothing, but the great majority migrated
to genial climes, and these continued their old habits of
life. I fell asleep at the close of this the Second Inter-
glacial Period, which was longer and more genial than
any of the others.

“The Third Glacial Epoch was well advanced when
next I set forth a wanderer through the valleys of
Europe. It was less widespread than the second. ‘Two-
thirds of England and about a fourth of Ireland were
clear of ice, nor was the Zuyder Zee frozen during
summer. The site of Berlin, however, was well within
the glacial area, as was also that of Warsaw. ‘The Alpine
snow-line had crept down over 3000 feet. Yet although
Europe resembled in some parts Greenland and in others
North Siberia in the present Age, I saw numerous tribes
of human beings. They were of small stature but mus-
cular and active. ‘Their heads were narrow but of great

1 The Piltdown skull of a broad-headed woman was discovered in 1913.

16 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

size, and their faces, although not devoid of intelligence,
were exceedingly rugged; their big dark eyes were over-
shadowed by enormous brow ridges, they had broad
flattened noses, projecting mouths, and chinless jaws.’
They made their homes in caves, and in these they lit
fires, round which they sat to chip their flints and fashion
their skin garments.

“JT will describe what I saw when I sought shelter
with a tribe of these people at Le Moustier, in the
valley of Dordogne, in south-western France. The River
Vézére then flowed go feet higher than in modern times.
I entered a cave on a damp and chilly summer day.
Haunches of venison were being roasted on a fire-place
constructed of upright stones, and near it several work-
men were busily engaged chipping flints. They con-
structed a greater variety of implements than the men
of the Chellean and Acheulean Periods, and showed
greater skill in economizing their material: flakes were
removed at a single blow and utilized for smaller arti-
facts, and when an implement was given form it was
carefully dressed with minute chipping until it became
an artistic product, exceedingly pleasing to the eye.
Men took delight in their work and rivalled one another
to gain the praises of their fellows. The tailors cut
the dried skins with their sharp hand-axes. Then they
squatted with crossed legs to sew the pieces together into
‘not unshapely garments. ‘They made holes, through
which to thrust their dried thongs, with little flint awls.
In the evening a company of hunters returned from the
chase, dragging on a skin sledge the carcass of a musk-
ox; and when they had feasted heavily, I heard them tell
of battles with the cave-bear, of escapes from the cave-
lion and the dreaded woolly rhinoceros, of the slaying

1 The Neanderthal-Spy type.

EXAMPLES OF PALAEOLITHIC ART

gers carved in ivory and bone, line drawings of wild

‘The objects include: handles of knives and dagg
faces of men or demons, of animal-headed demon or deity with arms uplifted (compare

’ attitude of adoration), of wild horses on perforated “arrow straightener”, of men
cave bear, &c., and perforated amulets.

animals,
Egyptian “ Ka’
stalking a bison, of seal, cow, reindeer,

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS ry

of a great mammoth, and of how they guarded their food-
supplies against the ravages of prowling hyenas, gluttons,
and arctic foxes. Meanwhile the women busily engaged
themselves at the mouth of the cave cutting up the body
of the musk-ox and cleaning the skin with flint scrapers.
Ere night fell, the chief announced that on the morrow
they would go eastward to hunt reindeer. I gathered
that these people migrated northward during the summer,
and returned again, on the approach of cold weather, to
their southern caves. Not infrequently they had to
fight with other tribes who took possession of their
winter homes.

“JT went to sleep during this period, and when next
[ awoke I found that the Third Inter-glacial Period had
dawned. The glaciers melted and again there were great
floods in the valleys, and the ice retreated from the low-
lands of Scotland. The summers in Central Europe were
exceedingly pleasant, but never so warm as during the
Chellean Age, and dust-storms were of frequent occur-
rence. Forests were once again flourishing, and I saw
in the midst of them many southern animals which were
migrating farther and farther northward. During winter
the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros came as far south
as Prussia. Mousterian man was able to pursue the
hunt high among the mountains, where he found caves
in which to shelter himself from wild animals by night.
He returned to the valleys when the blizzards of winter
drove southward the fierce and numerous beasts of prey
he dreaded most.

“I saw new types of mankind. In the Dordogne
valley were tribes of slender-limbed human giants who
were fearless warriors and mighty huntsmen. Some were
6 feet 6 inches in height. But it was not only in
stature that they contrasted sharply with the vanishing

18 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Mousterians, who were rarely higher than 5 feet 3 inches.
They had big long heads and broad faces, high foreheads,
deep-set brown eyes, prominent cheek-bones, sharply
curved lips, and well-formed chins. They resembled
modern Europeans more closely than any human beings
I had yet met with. Their faces, tanned by wind and
sun, were alert and keen, and, although rugged, were
greatly softened when their ready smile laid bare their
white gleaming teeth. I observed that the young men
showed great respect for their elders. It was of common
occurrence to see many gathered round a cave entrance
listening to the counsel of some white-haired sage. An
old man, who had achieved widespread renown as an
explorer and leader of men, lived in a cave at Cro-
Magnon, and was often approached to settle disputes
and give advice regarding great undertakings; he was
also skilled as a healer of wounds and a curer of disease.
These men had greater regard for their dead than obtained
among their Mousterian predecessors, I once saw them
laying to rest a slain warrior in his family burial-grotto
at Aurignac. He was clad in his skin robe. His head-
dress was adorned with a string of sea-shells and round
his neck was a collar of the perforated teeth of a rein-
deer, the skeleton of the salmon of wisdom was laid on
his breast, and the whole body was sprinkled with magic
pigment. A fire was lit, and the warriors danced round
the grave with slow, measured steps, while a sage recited
the mighty deeds performed by the dead man. Women
knelt near at hand, wailing a chorus of sorrow. Beside
the warrior they laid his weapons and implements as well
as food which had been cooked for him and water for
refreshment; then the grotto was closed up with a large
slab of limestone. Aurignacian man of Cro-Magnon
type was a lover of his kind,

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS 19

‘T saw other tribes which had entered southern France
at this period from Africa. At a Grimaldi cave near
Mentone I dwelt for a space with a family of dark-
skinned people with broad noses and protruding mouths.
They resembled somewhat the modern Bushmen of
South Africa and were similarly of short stature, but
their heads were larger and their faces more intelligent.
Middle-aged women had enormous development of fatty
tissue; their steatopygous figures were invariably ex-
ceedingly grotesque, but were yet greatly admired.’

“These Aurignacian peoples worshipped the mother-
goddess, and there were among them clever artists who
carved out of ivory and bone, limestone and steatite,
female figures to represent their deity. Sometimes they
depicted the slim-waisted, long-haired Cro-Magnon
women, and sometimes the woolly-haired bulging forms
of Grimaldi type. In those districts where the Bushmen-
like people were the slaves of the tall huntsmen a
steatopygous woman was sometimes selected at religious
ceremonies to represent the mother-goddess.

“The Aurignacian artists were wont to decorate their
caverns with figures of wild animals, which they sketched
in outline with pointed flints, and often coloured with
crayons of red ochre or painted with pigment which they
carried in bone tubes. In the deep cave of Altamira, in
Spain, I saw a great picture-gallery in which various
artists had exhibited their skill. One part of the vaulted
roof was covered with lifelike representations of edible
animals, including wild horses, deer, and boars, and else-
where I saw artistic productions of similarly high merit.
In some caves, which were constantly inhabited, were
impressions of human hands. These were intended to

1 Two Grimaldi skulls which have been discovered haye distinct negroid character-
istics ; the jaw protrudes sharply,.

20 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

avert the influences of the evil eye and the attacks of
demons. Huntsmen left records of their experiences
in summer hunting districts by. inscribing symbols on
cave walls, so that those who came nigh might know how
they were likely to fare there. They also depicted the
forms of monstrous demons that had to be propitiated.

“The hunters of the Aurignacian Age were the first
I saw using bows and arrows. In preparing the arrow-
shafts they utilized perforated bone straighteners Their
flint implements were worked with skill far surpassing
that of the Mousterian Age.

“ How long I slept during this period I cannot tell.
When next I woke up I found that the temperature had
suffered sharp decline. Cro-Magnon man still inhabited
a great portion of southern France,” but I observed also
other types which were new to me. At Solutre, Saone-et-
Loire, where tall and short types gave evidence of race
intermixture, I fell in with highly-skilled artisans who
shaped flint lance-heads of laurel-leaf and willow-leaf
shape, and accomplished delicate secondary flaking by
pressure with bone implements. They also made comfort-
able skin clothing, which they sewed with bone needles
which had perforated eyes. The winters grew gradually
longer and more severe, and the men of the Solutrean
Age achieved rapid progress in their conflict with the
elements. Huntsmen favoured the horse, but slew also
the reindeer.

“ The Fourth Glacial Period followed, and it was suffer-
ing decline when I next went out to explore those districts
that had seen so many changes. I awoke at La Madelaine,
on the right bank of the Vézére, which then flowed higher

1 This implement has also been called a “sceptre”; it was more probably an “arrow”
straightener”’. 2 And is still found there, as ethnologists have demonstrated.
3 The bone needle with perforated eye is an invention of this period,

—
5

PALAEOLITHIC ART: REPRESENTATIVE PAINTINGS OF BISON AND
DEER, FROM THE CAVE OF ALTAMIRA, NEAR SANTANDER, SPAIN

The bison was evidently painte

d during summer, after it had rubbed its shaggy winter coat off the
greater part of its body.

From copies of the originals by L’ Abbé Breuil

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS 21

than at the present day. In this district the tall men of
Cro-Magnon type were less numerous than the stumpy
intruders of this Magdalenian Age, who had some resem-
blance to the present-day Esquimaux. Half-breeds, how-
ever, were not uncommon. The little men had much
more refined and intelligent faces than the Mousterians;
their foreheads were large and their chins prominent, and
they were clad in closely-fitting skin garments to resist
the sub-arctic climate. Like the cave-dwellers of the
Aurignacian Age, they were skilled artists and artisans.
The Grimaldi folks had migrated southward, and ivory
carvings of the mother goddess were modelled on the
slim-waisted female type. Artists continued to decorate
the caves with paintings of animals, and they also engraved
their implements and weapons, and even stones and
pieces of slate. The bison and the wild horse were often
depicted, but the most favoured models were the northern
animals of this cold European Age. Mammoths were
growing scarce, for men had acquired skill in trapping
them, and the artists engraved ivory charms with their
bulky forms, and numerous were their studies of reindeer
grazing on snowy plains, crouched up at bay, or panting
in rapid flight to escape the dogs and arrows of the hunts-
men. The Magdalenian artists also drew the snarling
cave-bear, the double-horned and snouted head of the
woolly rhinoceros, the antelope and the chamois, and the
scampering wolf with gaping jaws. Among birds they
were familiar with the goose and the swan, and, as they
were accomplished fishermen, they could carve in many
characteristic attitudes the graceful salmon and the keen-
eyed seal. Many huntsmen had the handles of their
daggers fashioned to represent the animals they were wont
to stalk and slay.

“ During this period flint-working declined somewhat,

22 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

for the fashion became prevalent of pointing lances and
arrows with ivory and bone and reindeer horn. A great
inventor equipped huntsmen with a new weapon—the
barbed harpoon—and another provided for it a thrower
made from reindeer horn, so that it could be thrown
farther and directed with surer aim. A long cord was
attached to the harpoon, which was utilized to catch
salmon and seals. This wonderful invention was the
means of increasing greatly the food-supply. It thus
rendered the struggle for existence less arduous, especially
when the tribes increased in number.

“Great changes took place when the Fourth Glacial
Period began to decline, and more genial conditions
became prevalent. The Magdalenian huntsmen migrated
farther and farther northward as the ice area shrank in
dimensions, because the reindeer deserted those districts
which failed to yield them in sufficient abundance the
lichens upon which they fed.”

In the Gaelic legend of the Irish Ages it is stated that,
when Tuan ended, “the auditors thanked him... . They
remained a whole week talking with him.” But his
modern narrative deals with problems which are not likely
to be solved in so brief a space of time. It touches the
fringes of not a few controversies which have been waged
vigorously for a number of years, and are likely to be
continued indefinitely. In this volume, however, which
deals mainly with the intellectual life of early peoples, it
is unnecessary to state in detail the various conflicting
views regarding the geological periods and the earliest
traces of man in Europe; but a brief summary of the
results of modern research may be given, so that the
general reader may be familiarized with one particular
phase of the subject which is pregnant with human
interest,

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS ph)

In Tuan’s references to early man in Europe, six
stages of development, or levels of culture, have been
referred to.

These are:

. The Chellean, in the Second Inter-glacial Period.

. The Acheulian, a late phase of the Chellean.

The Mousterian, in the Third Glacial Period and later.

. The Aurignacian, in the Third Inter-glacial Period and later.
. The Solutrean, in the late Third Inter-glacial Period and

aPWDN

later.

6. The Magdalenian, in the Fourth Glacial Period.

Some archeologists place before the Chellean, Stage 1
the Mesvinian, and 2, the Strepyan, but others regard
them as earlier phases of the Chellean. A still earlier
stage, called the Mafflian, with which the Galley Hill
(Kent) skeleton and implements were associated, has been
taken down to the Strepyan Period of Chellean man.
The various stages have been subdivided into Upper,
Middle, and Lower Periods.

Of late years certain scientists have sought to establish
a pre-Palzolithic Age called the Eolithic. They thus
place the appearance of man in the geological Tertiary
system, not only in the Pliocene Age, which preceded
the Pleistocene, but also back through the Miocene and
Oligocene Ages to the Eocene. The Tertiary stages of
culture are called Reutelian, and are as follows:—

1. Eocene Age, Duan (Reutelian).

2. Oligocene Age, Fagnian (Reutelian).

3. Miocene Age, Cantalian (Reutelian).

4. Pliocene Age, Kentian (Reutelian).

5. Early Pleistocene, Thames basin (Reutelian).

Then follow the Mesvinian and Strepyan phases of
early Chellean culture.

24 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Professor James Geikie confesses he is “staggered”
by the theory that man existed in the Tertiary system of
Ages. “Since the Eocene Period, which must date
back”, he says, “several millions of years, the whole
mammalian fauna has undergone modifications and changes,
continuous evolution having resulted in the more or less
complete transformation of numerous types, while many
others have long been extinct. And yet, if we accept the
eoliths as proofs of man’s existence in Eocene and Oligo-
cene times, we must admit that in this case—and in this
case alone—evolution must have been at a standstill during
a prodigiously extended period. For it must be under-
stood that the eoliths of the older Tertiary formations
cannot be distinguished from those met with in the
Miocene, Pliocene, and even Pleistocene deposits.*

These “eoliths” are chipped flints which were either
flaked by man or by natural causes—the movements of
strata settling under pressure or the action of water. The
problem is a difficult one. “The unprejudiced”, says
Professor Duckworth, “will maintain an open mind,
pending the advent of more conclusive evidence than has
been adduced hitherto.”* Professor Sollas, on the other
hand, is convinced that not a trace of unquestionable
evidence of man’s existence has been found in strata
admittedly older than the Pleistocene.’

Estimates of the approximate duration of the Pleisto-
cene Age vary considerably. Geikie, following Penck,
gives 620,000 years as a minimum; Rutot confines it
to 139,000 years, and thus reduces greatly the age of
his “eoliths”, while Sturge estimates that a single period
of it lasted for 700,000 years. The majority of leading
scientists, however, have of late inclined to favour Penck’s

1 Antiquity of Man in Europe, p. § (1914).
2 Prehistoric Man, pp. 106-11 (1912). 3 Ancient Hunters, pp. 67, 69 (1911).

PRIMITIVE EUROPEANS pals

system of dating, and to allow 400,000 years as a
minimum for the Paleolithic or Early Stone Age, which
begins with the first stages of Chellean culture. The
dawn of the Neolithic, or Late Stone Age, is dated in
southern Europe and Palestine at roughly 10,000 B.c.

In the next chapter consideration will be given to
those traces which survive of the religious and magical
beliefs of the Paleolithic peoples, and it will be shown
that the evidence accumulated has an important bearing
on the problems raised by Cretan and pre-Hellenic dis-
coveries, as well as upon the study of the myths and
legends of Babylonia and Egypt, and those of peoples
less renowned but no less important from the point of
view of the student of comparative mythology.

CHAPTER II
Paleolithic Magic and Religion

Intellectual Life of Paleolithic Man—Evidence from Present-day Savages
Paleolithic Man progressive and big-brained—Bushmen and Cro-Magnon
Culture—Chronology of Aurignacian Period—The Inspiration of Primitive Art
—Steatopygous Figurines of Cave-dwellers, Babylonians, Maltese, and Egyp-
tians—The Primitive Mother -goddess—Wasp - waisted Females in Fertility
Dance—Hand Impressions in Caves—Finger-mutilation—The Indian Evil-
eye Charm—F oot-print Lore—-Animal Pictures as Totems—Evidence of Aus-
tralia—Magdalenian Art—Charmed Weapons—Palzolithic Ceremonial Burials
Ornaments as Charms—Magic and Religion—Antiquity of Animal-headed
Deities—Origin of the Nude Goddess—The Aurignacian Claim.

Ir will be recognized at the outset, in dealing with the
sntellectual life of the Paleolithic Europeans, that little or
no evidence can be derived from chinless jaws or skulls
with protruding brow ridges, and that the artifacts of the
Chellean and Acheulian phases of culture assist us only
in so far as they afford evidence regarding habits of life
and growing skill in craftsmanship. Not until we reach
the Mousterian stage, in the Third Glacial Epoch, and find
that the cave-dwelling hunters of reindeer and mam-
moths practised the ceremonial burial of the dead, is there
any sure indication that the Paleolithic mind was sufh-
ciently concerned regarding the great problems of life and
death as to formulate definite beliefs regarding the destiny
of mankind. But it would be rash to draw far-reaching
conclusions from negative evidence. The results that

accrue from the comparative study of beliefs and customs
26

PALHOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 27

renders highly improbable the hypothesis that Chellean
and Acheulian men of the Second Inter-glacial Period
took no thought of the morrow because they were on
a plane of lower intellectual development than, for in-
stance, the backward Australian savages who practise
elaborate ceremonials and perpetuate myths which were
anciently the products of speculative thought. Indeed,
there is no savage tribe on the globe at present which can
be said to be devoid of its intellectual life.

It is quite possible that the Chellean folks were even
more advanced than some of the existing types of primi-
tive peoples. This view is supported by the evidence
obtained of their distinct progressive tendencies. Stages
of development can be detected in Chellean culture which
was raised to the Acheulian plane, and the increasing
number and excellence of the artifacts show clearly that a
further distinct advance was achieved when the Mous-
terian phase had fully developed. It is found, by the
examination of surviving Mousterian skulls, that despite
his rugged facial characteristics the Paleolithic European
was a big-brained man. Of course, skull capacity, espe-
cially in individual cases, cannot be regarded as proof of
intellectual power. Still, the fact remains that the really
progressive races in the world at present are those en-
dowed with the most liberal cranial capacity. The early
inhabitants of Western Europe may, therefore, have sur-
passed as. thinkers, as they certainly did as inventors,
those surviving remnants of ancient races to whom they
are usually compared. The Grimaldi skulls of the Auri-
gnacian period may have Bushmen characteristics, but
they give indication of greater intellectual development
than can be credited to those ill-fated and interesting
African nomads who, prior to coming into contact with

the white races, at whose hands they have suffered so
(¢ 808 ) 6

28 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

shamefully, had not advanced much beyond the Aurigna-
cian and Magdalenian stages of culture. The Bushmen
appear, in fact, to have remained through long ages in a
state of arrested development after breaking away from
the ancient progressive races from whom the elements of
their civilization were derived. Possibly they even degene-
rated in the interval.

It is probable that the Cro-Magnon peoples of the
Aurignacian stage of culture represented the race of un-
known origin which exercised so marked an influence on
those of their contemporaries who were in touch with
them. They had the largest brains of any of the ancient
peoples. Indeed, according to the ethnologists, the skull
capacity of their women was greater than that of the
average male European in the present age.

This Aurignacian stage of culture, which some date
approximately at 20,000 B.C. and others at 30,000 B.C.,
affords ample indications not only of intellectual activity,
but also a marked degree of refinement of thought and
feeling. As has been shown in the “’Tuan MacCarrell”
story of the Pleistocene Age, the Cro-Magnon cave-dwellers
of the Late Third Inter-glacial Epoch were accomplished
draughtsmen and tvory-carvers. They had an Art history
which must be regarded as a reflection of their social
history. Apparently they had solved the problem of
securing their food-supply with a minimum of effort and
had therefore leisure to cultivate the Arts; this triumph
they achieved by inventing new implements and improv-
ing those inherited from the Mousterian Epoch. Withal,
as one cave-picture shows, they possessed domesticated
cattle which the women engaged in herding. Conse-
quently they had advanced from the hunting to the pas-
toral stage of civilization.

Their activities in the sphere of Art began with rude

PALZOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 29

childish efforts and culminated in the production of
realistic drawings and carvings in the round, and even of
decorative designs which stand comparison with those of
later and more complex civilizations. It was considered
incredible, when discovery was first made of their cave-
pictures, that Palzolithic man could have been endowed
with either such intense artistic insight and feeling or
technical skill as these gave evidence of.

An interesting problem arises in connection with the
artistic products of the Aurignacian and Magdalenian
stages of culture. Were they connected with ceremonials,
and therefore symbolic of religious and magical beliefs;
or should they be considered simply as the expression of
an Art movement which had been gradually developed
for long ages by accomplished flint-knappers who, in pro-
ducing exquisitely flaked artifacts of symmetrical propor-
tions, displayed that infinite capacity for taking pains
which amounts to genius?

There can be no doubt that the finest Aurignacian
figurines wrought in stone and bone and ivory were con-
scious impressions of feminine beauty of form, and that
the artists of the Cro-Magnon race were as devoted lovers
of Art for Art’s sake as those who at a later period
shaped the exquisite Solutrean flint lances of laurel-leaf
and willow-leaf design. The absence of male figurines, |
however, suggests that the art of this remote period was
fostered as a cult product, and that we should regard |
these studies of nude women as religious symbols. This |
inference appears to be corroborated by the finds of
grotesque steatopygous figurines, some of which display |
no inconsiderable degree of skilful craftsmanship. It is |
difficult to believe that when artists selected as models |
women with enormously developed hips and thighs the
motif was purely an zsthetic one; their obvious desire |

30. CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

was to exaggerate sexual characteristics for some special
reason.

The evidence derived in this connection from other
cultural areas is of undoubted value and interest. In
Babylonia terra-cotta figurines, “ with accentuation of the
female parts’’, represented Ishtar in her character as the
goddess of love and passion.” The steatopygous figurines
which have been found in the prehistoric “ sanctuaries
of Malta were associated with perforated axe amulets and
other magical or religious ornaments. In some of the
pre-Dynastic graves of Egypt occur figurines of two
types: those of slim-waisted women and those of steato-
pygous females with short beards.” It is not improbable
that the Aurignacian, like the early Egyptian figurines,
were tribal forms of the ancient love goddess and that the
original “ bearded Aphrodite” had a racial significance.

In addition to these figurines there are other evidences
of the practice of religious ceremonials in the remote
Aurignacian Age. In a cave at Cogul, near Lerida, in
Spain, a quaint painting depicts several females, with
“ wasp waists” and bell-mouthed gowns reaching to their
knees, dancing round a nude male figure. A phallus
image of this culture stage has also been discovered.

Further light is thrown on Aurignacian beliefs by the
imprints on cavern walls of human hands with mutilated
fingers. Some hands had been first smeared with pig-
ment and then impressed on the naked rock; others had
been held against damped rock and dusted round with
either red or black substances. Not a few of the fingers
show that one or more joints had been removed either by
accident or design.

1 Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria, Morris Jastrow, pp. 136 et seq.

2 The female beards suggest that this race’s area of characterization was a cold country.
On the other hand, it may be held that we have here the earliest evidence of belief in
“intermediate types” among the ancient Egyptians.

( danyes,, teAvad ur pastes wie
qySur ya aaddiysiom & sMoys eAnSy ezesedas oy3 epIyM ‘seaop av sp.lq By} “SseppoH exVUS eya punos Surouep sassoysarid quesaider sounnsy sy,

OULSVAIVIVd WOW ‘VLLOO-VUNaL NI ‘SANTYNOIA JO dnoUo

i]

PALHOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 31

The practice of finger-mutilation obtained among
Bushmen, certain Australian tribes, and communities of
Canadian Indians. Independent investigators have ascer-
tained that it was usually associated with burial customs
and the ravages of disease. Bush women sacrificed a joint
of the little finger when a near relation died, and Canadian
natives acted similarly during times of pestilence “to cut
off deaths”. Finger mutilation in Australia was, among
other things, occasionally a mark of caste.’

References are made to finger-mutilation in Gaelic
stories. After or before great heroes performed deeds
of valour, fighting against monsters or famous rivals, they
fell into profound slumber. Heroines had to awaken
them by cutting off a finger-joint, a part of anceaty OF
a portion of skin from the top of the head. In the story
of Conall Gulban a “great man” came to carry off the
lady called “Breast of Light”, while Conall, her lover,
lay asleep. “Fear would not let her cut off the little
finger,” it is stated, “and she could not awaken Conall.’”’?
This savage practice had evidently a magical significance.
It may have been intended to renew strength and prolong
life, and perhaps also to ward off threatened perils. In
the latter case it may have been associated with the cere-
mony of purification, Among many primitive peoples
those who dug graves or touched the dead were under
taboo for varying periods, and not allowed to touch indi-
viduals or even handle their own food; in some instances
they had to be fed by friends until the purification cere-
mony was completed.

Hand lore is as widespread as it is varied. Magical

1 See Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, W. J. Burchell, Vol. 11, p. 61 (1824);
The Native Races of South Africa, G. W. Stow, p. 129 (1905); Report on the North-
Western Tribes of Canada, Representative of the British Association (1889), p- 837; and
Ancient Hunters, W. J. Sollas, pp. 238 et seg. (1911).

2 Campbell’s West Highland Tales, Vol. III, p. 225.

32 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

signs were made by posturing certain fingers. “Children,”
says an old English writer, “to avoid approaching danger,
are taught to double the thumb within the hand. This
was much practised whilst the terrors of witchcraft re-
mained. . . . It was the custom to fold the thumbs of
dead persons within the hand, to prevent the power of
evil spirits over the deceased.”* In India the upper finger-
joints are lucky, and the lower unlucky. Consequently
the former only are used at prayer-counting. Throughout
Europe much attention was paid to the fingers. The
small finger was spat over for luck, and the forefinger
of the right hand was supposed to be poisonous, and in
the treatment of wounds was never utilized. It used to
be considered unlucky to pare finger-nails on certain days.
At any time finger-nail parings might be used by witches
to work evil spells against individuals. Some mothers
still hesitate to cut baby’s finger-nails in the first year of
life, and bite them off instead. The Scandinavian dead,
who were buried with unpared nails, and therefore with-
out ceremony, suffered torture in the Otherworld. The
ship in which the demons sailed to wage war against the
gods at Ragnarok was made of the nail-parings of wicked
persons, and was called Nagifar, a name derived from
nagi, a human nail. The fate of an individual was, and
is still, believed by patrons of “ palmists” to be indicated
by the markings of the hand. Much attention used to
be paid to dots on finger-nails; yellow spots foretold
‘death, white spots gifts, and black spots bad luck. Hands
were spat upon to seal bargains and bring luck, and kissed
upon in connection with Pagan religious practices.

The Aurignacian custom of leaving imprints of hands
on rocks is prevalent in modern times in Australia and
elsewhere. In India it is part of a luck ceremony.

1 Hutchinson’s History of Northumberland, Vol. WU, p. 4.

PALHOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 33

“During a marriage among the Madigas (Telugur
Pariahs)”, writes Mr. Edgar Thurston, a well-known
investigator, “‘a sheep or goat is sacrificed to the marriage-
pots. The sacrificer dips his hand in the blood of the
animal, and impresses the blood on his palms on the wall
near the door leading to the room in which the pots are
kept. This is said to avert the evil eye. Among the
Telugu Malas, a few days before a wedding, two marks
are made, one on each side of the door, with oil and
charcoal, for the same purpose. At Kadur, in the Mysore
Province, I once saw impressions of the hand on the
walls of Brahman houses. Impressions in red paint of
a hand with outspread fingers may be seen on the walls
of mosques and Mohammedan buildings.”* In many
Eur-Asian folk-tales the “Great Hand” is the only
visible part of a destructive demon.

Those Indians who still charm their houses with hand
imprints also trace wavy and interlacing lines in front of
their doorsteps and on either side of the part approaching
it. Similar lines are found on Bushman paintings of
hunting-scenes and in Aurignacian cave-pictures in France
and Spain. They may have been intended to snare
demons as well as to cast a spell over wild animals. The
hieroglyphics representing the name of a Pharaoh were
surrounded by cartouches which were “name charms”.
On some of the sculptured stones of Brittany human
footprints are depicted surrounded by meandering and
serpentine lines. Perhaps these “luck lines”, as they
may be called, were inscribed with purpose to secure
magical protection for individuals setting out on a
journey. Primitive peoples rarely entered upon new
undertakings without performing luck ceremonies. It

1 Omens and Superstitions of Southern India, p. 119 (1912), and Journal of Anthropo-
logical Institute, XIX, p. 56 (1890).

34. CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

is recorded in a minute of Dingwall Presbytery, dated
sth September, 1656, which refers to the prevalence of
superstitious practices in a western parish of Ross-shire,
“that future events in reference especiallie to lyfe and
death, in takeing of Journeyis, was exspect to be mani-
fested by a holl of a round stone quherein they tryed the
entering of thair heade, which if they could doe, to witt,
be able to put in thair heads, they expect thair returning
to that place, and failing they considered it ominous ’’.
The writer in his boyhood took part with his contempo-
raries in performing various luck ceremonies which were
evidently of remote origin. Before dangerous cliffs were
climbed an ash-tree, named the “rock tree”, was visited,
and each individual ascertained, by throwing a stone into
a hollow in the trunk, whether he could safely under-
take the proposed enterprise or not. If a stone darted
sideways, the boys shouted, “The danger goes past!”
but if it returned to the feet of the thrower it was taken
as a sign of ill luck for that day, and he turned home-
wards. A large flat stone, called “the spitting-stone”’,
was spat upon by those that remained. The compact
was thus formed; where one went everybody had to go.
When a rocky chasm had to be leapt over, caps were first
thrown to ensure that the owners would similarly cross
lightly and land safely; those whose caps fell short refused
to attempt to leap, and made a long and safe detour.
‘When a rainbow appeared against a rain-cloud passing
at a distance, the boys charmed away the threatened
shower, which would render the rock slippery and more
dangerous, by “breaking” the gleaming arch of colours.
This they accomplished, as they believed, by laying on a
boulder a withered sprig of grass, which they snapped
with a single blow delivered by a small stone grasped
tightly in the right hand, as Paleolithic man grasped his

PALHOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 35

“hand-axe”. It was noted that the upper part of the
rainbow faded simultaneously. Hands were spat upon
when a specially difficult portion of rock had to be nego-
tiated, and it was believed that danger was averted from
trickling water by wetting the tip of a finger and moisten-
ing the lips with it. A sacred well was invariably visited
for an inspiring and strengthening draught of charmed
water, and much reverence was shown for the wonderful
skimming flies which were supposed to cleanse it of mud
after it was disturbed. Luck-drinking was not uncommon
in other days. Grose says: ‘“ There is a kind of beverage
called ‘foot ale’ required from one entering on a new
occupation”. The “first-footing” ceremonies in Scotland
and elsewhere on New Year’s Day are the occasion for
much eating and drinking. The familiar phrase, “putting
one’s foot in it”, appears to have an interesting history.

“Tt is a world-wide superstition”, says Professor
Frazer, “that by injuring footprints you injure the feet
that made them.’’? If, then, these line-surrounded foot-
prints on the Brittany stones were not intended to pro-
tect individuals who visited them to perform magical
ceremonies, they may have been inscribed to restrict the
wanderings of the ghosts of heroes buried underneath.
The primitive folks perhaps thought that when footprints
were thus “snared” by “luck lines”, ghosts were pre-
vented from troubling the living.

A naked human footprint, which is not surrounded by
these meandering and interlacing lines, survives on fine
undisturbed sand on the floor of an Aurignacian cave
(Altamira), near drawings of panting trout and a wounded
bison.2 In this case the Paleolithic cave-dweller may

1Prand’s Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 333-

2 The Golden Bough (The Magic Art), Vol. I., pp. 207 ef seq. Professor Frazer gives
numerous illustrations of this belief.

8 Ancient Hunters, W. J. Sollas, p. 235+

36 (CREPES PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

have ensured his luck by connecting himself ceremonially
with the animals he desired to obtain. ‘ May luck follow
in my footsteps,” he may have exclaimed, as Highland
boys, who, as they set out on bird-nesting expeditions
were wont to say as they figured out eggs on a dusty
highway: “ May I get this and this and more.”

Other signs, which appear to be magical also, are rows
of dots. These figure in Australian and Bushman draw-
ings and paintings. They figure likewise on or beside the
artistic products of the Aurignacian Age, and sometimes
are arranged in such a manner as to suggest constellations.
More elaborate enigmatical signs, resembling birds in
flight, fish, twigs, battle-axes, occ., appear to be primitive
hieroglyphics.

Some anthropologists suggest that the animals depicted
by the Paleolithic artists, in caves and elsewhere, were
tribal or family totems. The following view is highly
suggestive. ‘All the beasts thus represented (in caves),”
says Professor Frazer, “appear to be edible, and none of
them to be fierce carnivorous creatures. Hence it has
been ingeniously suggested by M. S. Reinach that the
intention of these works of art may have been to multiply
by magic the animals so represented. . . . He infers that
the comparatively high development of prehistoric art in
Europe . . . may have been due in large measure to the
practice of sympathetic magic.”

Professor Frazer, quoting from Messrs. Spencer and
Gillen,? shows that the native Australians perform magical
ceremonies “to multiply the kangaroos and emus”,
“The men of the emu totem in the Arunta tribe proceed
as follows. They clear a small spot of level ground, and,

1 Bears are depicted on stones, &c., but evidence has been forthcoming that these
were eaten, It is possible that the primitive hunters feasted also on the flesh of the
mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.

2 Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 176,

PALHOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 37

Opening veins in their arms, they let the blood stream out
until the surface of the ground, for a space of about three
square yards, is soaked with it. When the blood has
dried and caked, it forms a hard and fairly impermeable
surface, on which they paint the sacred design of the emu
totem, especially the parts of the bird which they like
best to eat, namely, the fat and the eggs. Round this
painting men sit and sing... .” The men of the kan-
garoo totem perform a similar ceremony. They inscribe
figures of kangaroos on a rocky ledge, which they also
decorate with “alternate vertical stripes of red and white
to indicate the red fur and white bones of the kangaroo”,
The rock is reputed to be inhabited by kangaroo spirits
which are waiting for mothers, and they are supposed to
be driven out when human blood is poured over the
ledge."

M. S. Reinach’s theory regarding the magical signi-
ficance of Aurignacian art seems to be confirmed by a
piece of chance evidence which has been recorded quite
recently (1913). The Count Andreas Begouen, the
French archeologist, has on his estate in the district
of Montesquieu-Aventes a cavern known as the Tus
Ditboubert. It had long been known to bear traces of
occupation during Paleolithic times. Paintings could be
distinguished on the walls, but few finds of importance
were made in it until the count broke through a mass
of stalactites that concealed an inner cavern. In this
secluded part the Count discovered that Paleolithic man
had begun to work clay at a remote period. At the base
of one of the walls were curious little clay figurines of
animals in a wonderful state of preservation. “One”,
says a French writer, “was a male bison and another a
female. The first was 26 inches long and the second

1 The Golden Bough (“The Magic Art”), Vol. I., pp. 85—8, third edition,

38 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

30 inches. They were almost intact, although cracked
by the drying of the clay. Excavations on the floor of
the cavern revealed a great number of bones of the bison,
but no signs that the place had been used as a dwelling-
place or as a kitchen by the cave-dwellers.” In this eerie
cave the Paleolithic folk had evidently conducted mys-
terious ceremonies. But for what purpose? the Count
wondered. “It was an old peasant who gave him his clue.
‘It is a charm,’ said he, when his eyes fell on one of the
relics. Questioned regarding his statement, this man
went on to tell that the peasants of the neighbourhood
have an ancient custom which they believe enables them
to catch the foxes which raid their chicken-yards. They
made, he said, a clay image of a fox which they rubbed
with the blood of a fox, and then concealed among the
rocks at certain places. Close to it they buried the car-
cass of a fox. ‘Then they set traps near by, and towards
these foxes were drawn by the magical influence of the
modelled fox and were invariably caught.” It is unneces-
sary to emphasize the importance of this evidence. Similar
practices were widespread long centuries after the Palzo-
lithic folk flourished in southern France. The Baby-
lonians and Egyptians shaped waxen and clay images of
demons and thrust them into a fire so as to injure or destroy
the beings they thus depicted. Magical images were also
made in Greece and Rome, and they are still being -pro-
_duced in various parts of the world. The Scottish High-
land corp chreadh (“clay body”) was an image of an indi-
vidual whom the maker desired to afflict or slay magically."
Pins or nails were stuck into it so that the victim might
suffer pain, and it was placed in running water so that he
might “waste away’. Images of fish, turtle, and dugong

1], G. Campbell’s Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands aud Islands of Scotland
(1902), pp. 46-8. The custom is not yet obsolete,

‘

PALZOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 39

“were made by the islanders of Torres Straits and taken
with them when they went fishing, with the idea that the
image lured the real animal to its destruction; and men of
the dugong clan, who were symbolically decorated, made
mimetic movements with a dead dugong to constrain others
to come and be caught.”! The Paleolithic artists may
have utilized the fragments of slate, stone, &c., on which
animals were depicted for a similar purpose.

The Bushman cave-pictures closely resemble the
Aurignacian in many details, and even retain certain
mannerisms displayed by the ancient European artists.
But no direct evidence has been forthcoming that they
have, or had, a magical significance. It is possible, how-
ever, that those natives who were questioned in this con-
nection may have been as reticent regarding their secrets
as most superstitious peoples usually are. In Scotland,
where there are many archaic survivals, it is believed that
a charm may be broken if its purpose is revealed. Secrecy
is necessary for its success; it conserves energy and pre-
vents the working of counter-charms. Not unfrequently
in the past Highlanders have misled investigators who,
because of their inquisitiveness, were regarded with sus-
picion, and in consequence earned for themselves a repu-
tation for evasiveness and duplicity.

During the Magdalenian phase of civilization, in the
Fourth Glacial Epoch, there was a great art revival. Arctic
and sub-arctic fauna were depicted in a variety of forms
with artistic feeling and a degree of faithfulness which
betokens close and even trained observation of animals.
Decorative designs display overflowing artistic fancy.
Everything the Magdalenian craftsmen touched he ren-
dered beautiful. Handles of weapons were carved out of
bone, horn, or ivory to represent wild animals, which

1 Magic and Fetishism, A. C. Haddon, p. 19 (London, 1906).

40 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

were skilfully posed so as to combine utility with artistic
excellence. Decoration was evidently, as M. Piette has
insisted, generated primarily by the imitative instinct.’

Magdalenian art, like the Aurignacian, appears also
to have derived inspiration from custom and belief.
“Every weapon has its demon,” runs an old Gaelic axiom.
In the Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana,
the spirits of celestial weapons appear before the heroes,
to whom they are gifted by deities, in attitudes signifying
their willingness to render obedient and helpful service.
When we find Magdalenian dagger-handles carved to
represent charging mammoths or scampering deer, it
may be inferred that their owners believed that these
possessed the strength and prestige of the one animal and
the swiftness and sureness of the other. Discovery has
also been made of what appears to have been the Mag-
dalenian “bull roarer”. In Australia this implement is
used to invoke spirits at initiation and other ceremonies,
and elsewhere to raise the wind, that is to compel the
attention of the wind-god. The Egyptian sistrum
similarly summoned the god when it was tinkled in
temples.

Ceremonial burials, which are sure indications of the
existence of religious beliefs, took place, as has been in-
dicated, as early as the Mousterian or Middle Paleolithic
Period, and also in the later Aurignacian Period. Some-
times the dead were covered over with stones in their
cave homes, which were then deserted. Sometimes
artificial caves, or grottoes, were utilized as family or
tribal burial-vaults. Certain of the skeletons appear to
have been unfleshed and afterwards sprinkled over with
ochre and ashes. Stone chambers were also constructed
to protect the dead.

1D) Art pendant l’ Age du Renne.

PALHOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 41

The corpse was usually laid on the right side, with
the legs crouched up, the head resting on the right arm
and the left arm extended. Occasionally, however, the
arms appear to have been crossed. These postures suggest
sleep, but it must have been believed that the dead
would awake, for weapons and implements were left in the
tomb, as well as cooked food. The deceased was also
adorned with personal ornaments, which were evidently
charms. Apparently he had need of protection, per-
haps against demons. Strings of periwinkle shells were
placed on the head of deceased, and were evidently worn
also by the living. This custom in itself is sufficient to
suggest that in these remote times belief in magic was
well developed and exceedingly prevalent. Primitive
peoples wear charms for a variety of reasons—to bring
luck, to ward off disease, to cure, to give strength and
inspire courage, to acquire the particular attributes they
admire in the object, and so on. The periwinkle, which
so greatly attracted the Paleolithic Europeans, was not
necessarily regarded as “a thing of beauty and a joy for
ever”. It is only in modern times, when the significance
of an immemorial custom has faded, that personal orna-
ments are selected on account of their purely decorative
qualities, their rarity or cost. Our remote ancestors were
intensely practical, and in adorning their bodies expected
to derive some benefit from what they wore. The virtue
of the periwinkles was supposed to pass to the warriors
who charmed their heads with them, just as the virtue of
the crawfish toe with which Cherokee women have been
wont to scratch their babies’ hands was supposed to pass
to the child thus treated, and give him in after life a
powerful grip.1 It appears to have been believed that the

1 Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 308. (Washing-
ton, 1900.)

jo CREE ee PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE
heads on which the periwinkle shell lay would be as diffi-

cult to injure and as quick to avoid attack as the heads ot
these elusive sea-snails. The Irish hero Cuchullin wore
pearls in his hair. As frail pearls were protected by oyster
shells, they possessed protective virtue for those who
wore them. In this manner the ancient believers in
magical charms were accustomed to reason.

Palzolithic hunters also wore necklaces of deer’s teeth,
and these were fixed round the necks of the dead at
burials. They were probably charms for swiftness of foot
and endurance. African natives select for necklaces the
claws of leopards, which are supposed to impart to them
the fierceness and cunning of these dreaded animals, and
they believe that weariness is unknown to those who have
anklets of tortoise legs. When certain South American
tribes go to battle they charm their bodies with the tusks
of the courageous and irresistible peccary.

Some anthropologists separate magic from religion,
and define the former as a process whereby the service of
the god is enforced, and the latter as a process to secure
by appeal and obedience the goodwill and favours of the
god, Another theory is that magic was a means of leaguing
oneself with the evil powers as opposed to the religious
adoration of, and ceremonial connection with, the good
powers. Among the most primitive peoples it is recog-
nized that there is a right and a wrong way of obtaining
supernatural aid. Individuals, like Faust, might form a
compact with the devil and obtain favours denied to pious
folk, who, however, secured full reward for their piety in
the after-life.

The believer in magic in primitive times had no well-
defined and systematized philosophy of life. He appears
to have had a vague conception of world-pervading Power
which issued from a hidden and inexhaustible source, and

PALHOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 43

he endeavoured to “tap” the supply. This Power was
manifested in many directions and in many forms. Here
it specialized as the quality of strength or endurance, and
there as cunning or keen-sightedness. It might also
specialize as a curative influence, or be developed as a
multiplying and exceedingly fertile agency. This hidden
Power was also more potent at one season than another.
As man’s mind developed, and he recognized his
various deficiencies and needs in a world full of peril,
he proceeded to increase his capabilities of acquiring a
meed of this universal Power. He feasted on the body
of a strong animal to increase his own strength, on a
cunning animal to acquire more cunning, and, believing
that life was in blood, sought to prolong his life by drink-
ing blood. But he also believed that the virtues of an
animal, for instance, were not only in its flesh and blood,
but also in every part of its body. He picked up and
stuck in his hair the feather of an eagle, believing that the
feather would impart to him the keen-sightedness of that
efficient bird of prey. His own clothing, his footprints,
his saliva, his hair, his nail-parings, and so on, were so
closely connected with himself that he could be injured or
benefited if any of these things were brought into contact
with magical energy. A man could be injured or
hampered by injuring or hampering his footprints, by
muttering spells over his nail-parings, by mixing his saliva
with something infected with the energy of evil. There
was another way of “tapping” the universal Power. It
could be directed into certain channels by ceremonies, or
by uttering potent words. Herein the belief is involved
that a god or animal can be mesmerized by force of
example and will-power. If it was desired to catch a
deer, the hunter performed the part he wished the deer to
play; he ran and then fell as he wished the deer to fall;
7

(0 808)

44 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE.

fishermen acted the part of fish by wriggling as if into a
net, or towards baited hooks. Sailors whistled to raise
the wind, and ceased whistling when it blew hard enough.
Ceremonies were similarly performed to bring on rain in
season, and so on.

It appears to have been recognized at an early period
that there were two kinds of magic—the one kind brought
good luck and the other bad luck. By effecting a cere-
monial connection with the source of good-luck magic,
mankind prospered. Wells were lucky, and those who
visited them wished for what they desired and left some
article to ensure the constant supply of desired energy ;
certain trees were sources of good luck, and certain trees
were sources of bad luck. An individual might guard
himself against the influence of bad luck by throwing a
stone, as when, for instance, he threw one on a burial-
cairn, or the spot where a disaster had occurred, or by
spitting when an unlucky name was mentioned or an un-
lucky animal passed by.

Religious beliefs, it is argued, developed when man-
kind rose to a higher intellectual plane and recognized
that the world is subject to intelligent control—that there
is a Divinity “which shapes our ends, rough hew them
how we will”. It must be recognized, however, that
when this hypothesis is given practical application it has
to be subjected to qualifications. In civilized communities,
_like those of Babylonia and Egypt, the highest religious
conceptions were associated with the crudest magical beliefs
and practices. Deities were supposed to exercise control
over the supply of “Power”, but they might also be
influenced by it themselves. In Babylonia the chief god
of a pantheon attained his position by becoming possessed
of the “ Tablets of Fate”; he directed Power into certain
channels, but another and older god usually generated

PALAOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 45

Power. Merodach, for instance, was king of the deities,
but he had to co-operate with his father, Ea, the “ Great
Magician” of the gods. Ea generated Power by utilizing
fire and water. There are also traces of the ancient belief
that the moon was the supreme fountain-head of Power,
creative, curative, fertilizing, and sustaining, and it was
individualized as the bi-sexual deity Nannar (Sin), who
was the Father and Mother in one. In Scotland and Ire-
land the moon was never individualized, and the moon
remained simply as a magical crucible.

We may separate magic from religion, but this was not
done by the early peoples who believed in both. They
were fused in the common stock of inherited beliefs and
ideas. The elements of religion can be detected in com-
munities where magic is prominent, and the elements of
magic can be traced in well-developed religious systems.
It would appear that in the Paleolithic Age this con-
fusion existed also. Primitive man was neither logical
nor consistent. He embraced and perpetuated contra-
dictory beliefs. Intensely conservative, he continued to
cling to old ideas even after he embraced new ideas which
were intended to supplant those which had become
obsolete.

Religious ideas appear to have had origin when man-
kind were faced by crises. There came a time in every
primitive community when it had to be recognized that
magic failed them. A calamity visited charm-protected
homes, charmed warriors fell in battle, starvation con-
fronted a family or a tribe which had performed all the
ceremonies required for procuring the food-supply. Man-
kind had to face disaster with faith and courage, and in
doing so he faced the unknown. “Religion”, says Mr.
R. R. Marett, “is the facing of the unknown. It is the
courage in it that brings comfort. . . . The courage in-

46 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

volved in all live religion normally co-exists with a certain
modesty or humility.”

This religious feeling necessitated the recognition of
supernatural will. It brought to the stricken heart a
dim conception of a divine individuality which acted
voluntarily and in response to human appeals. The god,
or chief of the gods, was not controlled by Power in the
same way as mankind were. As this idea developed it
was believed that good luck came from the god, the
friend of man, and bad luck from the demon, the enemy
of man. It was necessary to win the favour of the god
and secure protection against the demon.

Magic, on the other hand, gave no recognition to a
supreme controlling will. It was rooted in the belief
that the world was governed by natural laws. Those
who practised it attained some success, but they generally
failed because of their ignorance of natural laws. Their
ideas about Power were based on the science of their
times. They endeavoured to “harness” it as their
descendants have “harnessed” the Niagara Falls, and
to attract it from a recognized source as a wireless tele-
graphic instrument attracts vibrating waves of electrical
currents. In dealing with the elements they acted vainly,
but often cunningly, for rain-making ceremonies, for
instance, were never practised except when rain was
expected. The wily magicians rarely attempted the im-
possible. They invariably achieved success, however,
when they sought to influence individuals. The primi-
tive folks lived in a world of terror. Many minds were
unstable; there were few who had not deranged nervous
systems. Magicians achieved far-reaching results by
sheer “make-believe”. It was no dificult task for them
to secure the co-operation of those whom they undertook

1 The Birth of Humility and Anthropology, p. 212+

PALZOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 47

to injure or cure, by hypnotic suggestion. At the present
day many of the members of primitive communities are
found to be exceedingly prone to hysteria, and these, of
course, are excellent subjects for the magician. A savage
who is prepared to face a lion or a Maxim gun, may
shiver at the glance of a magician who works up excite-
ment by performing a dance or some awesome and
mysterious ceremony with purpose to influence the dis-
tribution of Power.

When, therefore, we find a particular community with
individualized gods or demons, it may be recognized that
they have conceived of supernatural Wills which exist
apart from magical energy. All acts performed to in-
fluence these Wills in the interests of mankind are
religious acts. A magical ceremony may thus be per-
formed in a religious spirit. Some of the ancient peoples,
however, performed religious acts in dealing with the
gods, and practised magic when undertaking to baffle
demons. ‘Those of the gods”, said Isocrates, “who
are the source to us of good things have the title of
Olympians ; those whose department is that of calamities
and punishments have harsher titles; to the first class
both private persons and states erect altars and temples;
the second is not worshipped either with prayers or burnt
sacrifices, but in their case we perform ceremonies of
riddance.”! In India the ritualistic Brahmans performed
magical acts to prevent the demons intercepting sacrifices
intended for the gods. Egyptian priests practised magic
to influence the gods, although they also made offerings
to them, and those of Babylonia did likewise. The
fusion of religion and magic gave rise to many complex
practices and systems of belief.

The Paleolithic folks had their gods or demons, or

1 Isocrates, Orations, V, p. 117+
; ? Lie A 3

48 “HGREEE st PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

both, as well as their magical beliefs. Animal-headed super-
natural beings were depicted in cave-drawings, with hands
and arms uplifted in the Egyptian attitude of adoration,
or dancing the “dance of fertility” like the “goat-men”
(satyrs) of Babylonia and the animal-headed deities of
the wandering Bushmen. The fertility dance was
“magical”; the dancer was a supernatural being, a reli-
gious conception.

In Babylonia the oldest deities are indistinguishable
from demons. Even the benevolent Ea, who instructed
his worshippers how to erect buildings, till the soil,
and frame humanitarian laws, had his demoniac form.
The Paleolithic gods were apparently half demons also,
“destroyers” as well as “ preservers”’, “ enemies of man”
as well as “friends of man”, “bringers of calamity” as
well as “bestowers of blessings”.

In shaping their gods the early people made them
ideals of what they sought most or feared most. The god
of the athlete was a giant big as a tree, who threw great
boulders farther than a human being could fling a pebble;
the goddess of love was a lawless wanton who revelled in
exaggerated love-matches, and her lovers were numerous
as those of Ishtar and her kind. She was worthily de-
picted as a steatopygous female, who was the ideal of
reproducing motherhood, or as the slim beauty who
charmed impressionable males. The god was a super-
man and the goddess a superwoman.

But the idea of gods was also affected by precon-
ceived beliefs. Worshippers of animals, who believed that
their ancestor was a particular animal, associated them
with their anthropomorphic deities. Ea, the culture-god
of Babylonia, was clad in the skin of the ancestral fish,
whose virtues he had acquired by performing a sacrifice.
The priest of a totemic cult similarly enclosed himself in

IVORY FIGURINE AND HEAD—“THE LEAPER”—FROM KNOSSOS

Reproduced from the “ Annual of the British School at Athens”, by kind permission of the
Committee and of Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

PALHOLITHIC MAGIC AND RELIGION 49

the skin of the ancestral animal of his tribe or family,
which provided the food-supply, or he wore a mask to
represent the combination of the totem and the tribe in
himself. Another theory which accounts for animal-
headed deities is that they are a link between human
gods and animal gods; man progressed from the worship
of the “Great Beast” to the “Great Man” by degrees,
the process being an evolutionary one. The problem is
a difficult one, no doubt. But however we may attempt
to solve it we have to deal with the fact that in the Auri-
gnacian Age in southern and western Europe there were
animal-headed gods. These therefore did not begin to
be either in Egypt or Babylonia. ‘The process, if there
was a process, was well advanced ere the Tigro-Euphra-
tean valley was rendered habitable for man, or the proto-
Egyptians had begun to sow grain and reap harvests.
A prolonged Age of culture had prepared for the builders
of future civilization a tangled jungle of beliefs which
they were to inherit and perpetuate, along with the
decorative designs, &c., invented before and during the
Fourth Glacial Epoch. Even the fashions of attire were
fixed in the early period. The bell-mouthed skirts,
hanging from wasp waists, which have been associated
with Cretan civilization, are displayed in Aurignacian
cave-paintings. Even the Assyrian goddess’s postures
are earlier than Assyrian civilization. An ivory carving
of Ishtar as an Egyptian goddess has been discovered at
Kuyunjik. “The Egyptian character of the figure”,
writes Mr. L. W. King,’ “leaps to the eye... . In
fact, everything about the figure is Egyptian with one
exception—the position of the hands. The fact that the
goddess holds her breasts at once betrays her Asiatic
character. . . . The type, in fact, is characteristic of
1 The Fournal of Egyptian Archeology, Vol. I, Part II, pp. 107 et seg (1914).

so (CRETEV& PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

western Asia and extends also into the fEgean.” The
type and the pose are also characteristic of the Auri-
gnacian Age; some steatopygous figures carved in ivory
similarly hold their breasts with their hands. “It is still
uncertain”, adds Mr. King, “ whether the nude goddess
is to be traced to a Babylonian, Anatolian, or fEgean
source.” She may have survived from Aurignacian
times among the descendants of scattered Paleolithic
peoples who mingled with later immigrants into Europe
at the dawn of the Neolithic Age. In the next chapter
it will be shown that traces of an ancient goddess cult
survive in various areas, and that certain of these were
peopled by Palzolithic folks in post-glacial times, who met
and fused with the earliest settlers of the Mediterranean
Race.

CHAPTER III |
Ancient Peoples of the Goddess Cult

Crete and Paleolithic Man—Traces in Malta, Egypt, Palestine, and Phoe-
nicia—-Links between Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages—Azilian Culture in
France, Denmark, and Britain—Evidence of Geology and Folk-tales—Palzo-
lithic Types in Modern England—Coming of Neolithic Man of Mediterranean
Race—The Cretan Snake-goddess, Dove-goddess, and “Lady of Wild Crea-
tures”—The “Mother” of Crete—Identified with Rhea—Primitive Goddesses
as Destroyers—Black Annis of England and Black Kali of India—The Black,
Green, and Yellow Demeter (Ceres) —The Green Neith of Libya—Babylonian
Labartu and Black Scoto-Irish Hag—The “Terrible” Sekhet of Egypt—Tree
and Mountain Worship—Oak and Maypole and “Swain Motes” — Earth
Oaths in Greece and Scotland—The Greek Geia—Cailleach and Artemis—
Wind Hags—Goddess Cult and Status of Women—Process of Myth-making.

No Paleolithic skulls have been yet discovered in Crete,
although traces have been forthcoming of an early stage
of culture not unlike the Azilian. As the island was at
one time connected with the mainland, it may be that the
bones of the early races and the animals associated with
them lie buried in the A®gean Sea, which, during the
Inter-glacial periods, was a broad plain watered by noble
rivers and covered by dense forests. The extensive land
depression along the North African coast has similarly
hidden from us the secrets of prehistoric Libya.

In Malta, where ancient sites favoured by man were
liable to less disturbance by builders than in Crete, skulls
of the middle Paleolithic periods have been discovered.
There are eleven specimens from Hal Saflieni in the

Valetta museum. Some are of mixed types, but two
61

52 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

have distinct Mousterian characteristics and especially the
protruding brow ridges which distinguished the men of
the Third Glacial Period.

One skull from Hagiar Kim has negroid traits and
appears to link with those found in the Grimaldi cave
near Mentone. As has been stated, steatopygous figures
have been taken from Neolithic Maltese graves and
sanctuaries, a sure indication that the Aurignacian proto-
Bushmen were known to the early settlers of the Medi-
terranean race. Some of these figures are nude and
others wear the flounced gown usually called “Cretan”,
and it is of interest to note here that they are associated
among burial relics with perforated axe amulets of polished
stone. No Cro-Magnon skulls have been discovered in
Malta, but some race quite as tall must have mingled
there with the early Neolithic folk. A male skeleton
found at Santa Verna measures 5 feet 9 inches in length.
“The man was of a noble type,” writes an excavator ;
“he must have stood 6 feet high, his skull is massive
and shapely, the jaws and teeth are even and regular, and
the limbs powerful.”* The Mediterranean Neolithic man
was of slight build and medium stature.

The earliest Cretans were of the Mediterranean racial
type, but among them were alien broad-heads. Ere the
Neolithic folks settled on the island they came into con-
tact, apparently, with mountaineers from the north, or
- descendants of Paleolithic races. Steatopygous figurines
have been found in Cretan Neolithic strata.

In Egypt there was no hiatus between the Paleolithic
and Neolithic Ages. Not only have steatopygous figur-
ines been found in pre-Dynastic Egyptian and Nubian
graves, but also flints which show that the artifacts of the
later period were developed from those of the earlier. A

1 Malta and the Mediterranean Race, R. N, Bradley, pp. 72 ef seq.

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 53

’

reference to the “Smiting of the Troglodytes” on the
Palermo stone of the First Dynasty may refer to descend-
ants of the Paleolithic cave-dwellers.

Palestine, the high road from Egypt into eastern
Europe, has yielded numerous relics of the early stages
of culture. Chellean and Acheulian flints “have been
picked up on the maritime plain, in yet greater numbers
on the plateau south of Jerusalem, and in considerable
quantities in the region to the south of Amman, east of
Jordan. Some have also been discovered far to the south,
in the region of Petra.” Professor Macalister, from
whom we quote, notes that “ Palzolithic man in Palestine
missed, however, the higher developments attained by his
brother in France”. Mousterian cave-settlements in Phoe-
nicia have yielded characteristic flints and bone instru-
ments, including needles. Dr. Max Blanckenhorn has
assigned the date 10,000 B.c. to the earliest Neolithic
settlement in this region. Sherds of pottery have been
discovered in the Pheenician cave of Harajel “side by
side with the bones of extinct fauna, especially the woolly
rhinoceros”. In the natural Gezer caves of a later age
finds have been made of “ rude pottery, ornamented with
coarse moulding or roughly painted red lines; flint flakes,
knives and scrapers; millstones; rounded stone pebbles,
that could be used for a variety of purposes—hearth
stones; heating stones; missiles; polishers, &c.”’, and “an
amulet or two of bone or slate, perforated for suspen-
sion”’.

In France the most remarkable link between the
Paleolithic and later ages is formed by the Cro-Magnon
racial type which first appeared in the Dordogne valley in
the Aurignacian Period, before the Fourth Glacial Epoch.
The “most curious and significant trait” of these people

14 Histor of Civilization in Palestine, pp. 9 et seq.

54 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

is that they have long heads and broad faces: that 1s,
they have skulls with Mediterranean characteristics and
faces which resemble those of the broad-headed Armenoids
of the mountains. Summarizing the evidence of Dr. Col-
lignon regarding the present-day inhabitants of the Dor-
dogne valley, Professor Ripley says: “The people we
have described above agree in physical characteristics with
but one other type of men known to anthropologists.
This is the celebrated Cro-Magnon race, long ago identi-
fied by archeologists as having inhabited the south-west
of Europe in prehistoric times.” Varieties of the type
have occurred owing to the proximity of other races, but
it is still common and easily detected. Individuals with
the Cro-Magnon skull and “disharmonic face” are also
found among present-day Berbers.! Skeletons of Cro-
Magnon man of the Palzolithic Period have been found
as far north as Belgium. Dr. Schliz finds traces at the
present time of Cro-Magnon man throughout western
Europe, and believes that even the Neanderthal-Spy
(Mousterian) type has also left a slight but recognizable
impress.» The high average stature and weight of the
Scottish people, which has long puzzled ethnologists, may
be due to a strong Paleolithic intermixture in early Neo-
lithic times. The evidence obtained from the Glasgow
graveyard, referred to in the Introduction, is suggestive
in this connection.

Interesting evidence has been forthcoming at Mas
d’Azil, in France, of the transition period between the late
Paleolithic and early Neolithic culture. This stage of
culture is called Azilian. It was of long continuance.
Artifacts called “Azilian” found in Scotland may have
been separated by a considerable period of time from those

1 The Races of Europe, pp. 172 et seq.
® Archiv fir Anthropologie, Band 35, Ss. 239 et seg,

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 55

ys

discovered at Mas d’Azil. Cro-Magnon and Magdalenian
men lived through and survived the Fourth Glacial Epoch.
Then during the subsequent period of minor oscillations
of climate the reindeer and other animals of the chase
migrated northwards. These were followed, it would
appear, by the huntsmen, a proportion of whom, however,
remained behind and adopted new habits of life. As the
Cro-Magnon folks of the Dordogne valley had domesti-
cated animals, they no doubt found the struggle for exist-
ence in the homeland less arduous than their contempo-
raries, the small men of Magdalenian culture, who were
hunters and fishermen and naught else.

Subsequent to the Fourth Glacial Period there was
a re-elevation of land, and the Magdalenian wanderers
were able to walk over the bed of the English Channel.
The reindeer entered the British Isles also and survived
in Scotland until the Middle Ages. A deer-horn imple-
ment, carved with a scene of the chase, which was picked
up on the slopes of Ben Wyvis, was shown to the writer
shortly after it was discovered. It lay for several years in
the vestibule of a Dingwall hotel, but unfortunately has
gone amissing. It appears to have been a relic of Palzo-
lithic culture of the late period which must be assigned
to it in northern Highlands. The carving had Magda-
lenian characteristics.

Professor James Geikie shows that after the Fourth
Glacial Epoch genial conditions prevailed in Scotland.
This is the period of the great forests, relics of which are
embedded in peat mosses. He terms it “ Lower Fores-
tian”. A cold period followed and glaciers once again
descended from the mountains, and some of these were
not melted before they touched the sea. The forests
decayed and the peat formed above the great trees which
perished as each succeeding winter grew colder and each

56 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

succeeding summer shorter and wetter. Meanwhile the
land sunk and the sea washed round the 45 to 50 feet
beaches. Another Inter-glacial Period followed, during
which the forests again flourished. It constitutes Geikie’s
“Upper Forestian” Epoch. The last, or sixth, Glacial
Period followed, with its small and local glaciers, during
which the land sunk again, and the later peat beds covered
great fallen trees. Thereafter the present Age was in-
augurated by the raising of the land to more or less its
present level with a gradual improvement of the climate.

Traces of man in the Azilian stage of culture have
been found in Scotland.1. The MacArthur cave, which
overlooks Oban, was inhabited when the sea was 30 feet
above its present level, and the Highland troglodytes
__the earliest visitors—who were hunters and fishermen,
left behind bone and horn implements, including the
Azilian harpoon invented during the Magdalenian stage
of culture of the Fourth Glacial Epoch in southern France.
At Stirling harpoons of the same type were utilized at a
period when whales spouted not far from the castle rock.
Of late an interesting cave-dwelling, excavated at Rose-
markie in the Black Isle, has yielded a variety of bone and
other implements, and human remains. A large fire-place,
with upright smoke-blackened stones and surrounded by
a cobbled floor, was laid bare. ~The cave is situated about
15 feet above the present sea-level.

Associated with these caves and other early settle-
ments, chiefly on the ridges of the old coast-lines, are
heaps of shells. These have been found as far north as
Caithness.”

Those early settlers, of the “ river-bed””’ race, are

1 For earlier traces of Palzolithic man see The Stone Ages in North Britain and Ire-
land, by Rev. Frederick Smith (London & Glasgow, 1909). Dr. A. H. Keane calls the
author the “ Boucher de Perthes of Scotland ae

2 Huxley & Laing’s Prehistoric Remains in Caithness (London, 1886).

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 57

believed to be of the same mixed stock, surviving from
Paleolithic times, as the famous “ beach-combers” of the
Danish “kitchen middens’’. When the earliest Medi-
terranean racial pioneers of the Neolithic Age entered
these islands, they met and mingled with the troglodytes
who are referred to in Gaelic folk-tales.!

“Tt may quite well be”, says Professor James Geikie,
“that Neolithic man appeared in southern Europe before
Paleolithic man had vanished from the Pyrenean region,
and the two races may possibly have here come into con-
tact.” Most archeologists have abandoned the old hiatus
theory. Dr. Robert Munro argues, after reviewing the
latest evidence, that in Europe there was “no break in
the continuity of human occupation from late Paleolithic
to Neolithic times”, and accepts Dr. Keith’s view that
Paleolithic blood is as rife in the British people of to-
day as in those of the European continent”.2 Dr. Keith
finds everywhere in England numerous representatives
of the “river-bed” Paleolithic folks.

The Neolithic folks, who came into contact with the
remnants of the Palzolithic races in various parts of Europe,
were representatives of the widespread Mediterranean or
Brown Race. They were men of medium stature, with
long heads and high but narrow foreheads, refined faces,
dark eyes and hair, and slim bodies. Their brunette com-
plexions suggest that their area of characterization was
on the North African coast. Some ethnologists incline
to the view that the homeland of this stock was Somali-
land, the Punt of the Egyptian records, which, like Arabia,
favoured the production of a larger population than it

1 A caye-dweller in a Fingalian story is called Ciofach Mac a’ Ghoill (“Ciofach, son
of the stranger”). Another version refers to him as Ciuthach (pronounce “Kew/-
ach”’). Dealing with the legend of the Ciuthach, Professor W. J. Watson considers

that he was a hero “of a different race from the Gael” (Celtic Review, January, 1914).
? Prehistoric Britain, p. 234. (London, 1914.)

58. “CRETE Y& PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

was capable of sustaining permanently. In Egypt they
adopted the agricultural mode of life long before the
dawn of history. Periodic folk-waves, drifting westward
and east, entered Europe across the Straits of Gibraltar
and through Palestine and Asia Minor by the coast-line
route. In the process of time they overspread southern,
central, and western Europe, and entered the British
Isles. Probably they crossed over to Ireland from Scot-
land. Their burial customs indicate that their religious
beliefs were well developed prior to the period of “ folk-
wandering”. The Neolithic graves in Europe and Africa
are constructed on similar lines, and the great majority
of the skeletons they contain are remarkable for their
uniformity of type. ‘So striking”, writes Professor
Elliot Smith, “is the family likeness between the early
Neolithic peoples of the British Isles and the Mediter-
ranean and the bulk of the population, both ancient and
modern, of Egypt and East Africa, that the description
of the bones of an Early Briton of that remote epoch
might apply in all essential details to an inhabitant of
Somaliland.” *

It is not necessary to assume that they waged a war
of extermination against the Paleolithic huntsmen and
fishermen of Europe, so as to account for their ultimate
superiority of numbers. Their pastoral and agricultural
mode of life made it possible for them to live in larger
- communities and prosper in smaller areas than the Palzo-
lithic huntsman, whose activities had necessarily to extend
over wide stretches of country. At any rate, they never
overcame the Dordogne valley men of Cro-Magnon type.
It is possible that in districts in western Europe, as well
as in the British Isles, the Neolithic and late Paleolithic
peoples formed mixed communities. Dr. Robert Munro

1 The Ancient Egyptians, p. 58.

THE SNAKE GODDESS .OF CRETE

From the painting by John Duncan, A.R.S.A.

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 59

suggests that the latter became the servants and ‘“clod-
hoppers” of the agriculturists.

The Neolithic, like the late Paleolithic peoples, were
goddess- worshippers. They believed that the “Great
Mother” had given origin to the world, the gods, the
demons, and the races of mankind. In the various coun-
tries in which early Neolithic civilization was developed
traces still survive of this early belief, and it will be found
that the conception of the “Great Mother” is as varied
as were the degrees of culture attained by the separated
communities of common stock. Primitive ideas appear to
have persisted longer in isolated districts where ethnic
disturbances were least frequent and habits of life less
liable to undergo change.

In Crete there were three outstanding forms of the
mother-goddess—the snake-goddess, the dove-goddess,
and the “lady of wild creatures”. These may have been
different forms of an original deity, or representative of
a group composed of mother and daughters. As in
Egypt and Babylonia, it is found that the one goddess
tends to absorb the attributes of the other. It is pos-
sible that the Mother was supposed to manifest herself
in different forms, at different seasons, and in different
districts, and that one of the results of local ritualistic
development was to emphasize a particular form of the
original deity. But there can be no doubt that the con-
ception of the Mother was an essential part of the Cretan
faith.

The great goddess was depicted wearing a flounced
gown suspended from her slim waist, round which a girdle
is clasped (Chapter VI). The upper part of the body is
bare, and she has enormous breasts. Sometimes she stands
on a mountain top, guarded by two great lions, and some-

times she is seated beside trees or plants. In addition
(0 808) 8

60 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

to the lions, her wild animals include the wild goat, the
horned sheep, the bull, the red deer, the snake, and the
dove; and among the symbols associated with her are
the horns of the bull, the double axe, the sacred pillar,
the moon crescent, and a staff or wand. She was appa-
rently a goddess of death, battle, fertility, and the chase.
Offerings were made to her in a mountain-cave she was
supposed to inhabit.

It must be recognized at the outset that this ancient
deity, like others of her kind, was not necessarily an
attractive personality. Our conception of her must not
be based solely on Greek sculpture, for instance. She is
believed to be identical with Rhea, the mother of Vesta,
Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus, and that
deity was depicted by Phidias as a benign mother of great
dignity and tenderness and beauty. The original mother
was worshipped and propitiated because she was feared.
She was the Fate who measured the lives of men, who
sent disasters as well as blessings, and was associated with
lions and snakes as well as doves and deer. -Withal, she
was a voluptuous wanton.. Like the Babylonian Ishtar,
who was the lover of Gilgamish in one hour and his
unrelenting enemy in the next, she was fickle and change-
able as the wind and the seasons. She gloried with
callous heart in her power to destroy, and was untouched
by tender emotions for mankind, when—
Looking over wasted lands,

Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery
sands,

Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships and praying
hands.

Greek mythology, in which the beliefs of various ethnic

elements were fused, and savage traditions were ultimately

transformed by philosophic speculations, survives to us

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 61

mainly as the product of a cultured Age. But the poets
and artists did not divest it wholly of its primitive traits.
It is now generally recognized that the savagery of Cronus
is not mere symbolism, or the wrath of Artemis, who
required the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden, simply a myth
based on natural phenomena and not a reflection of “old
unhappy far-off things’’—a reminiscence of primitive
rites performed to propitiate a bloodthirsty deity.

In those parts of ancient Europe in which ancient
rites were perpetuated till a comparatively late period the
worship of pagan deities was a gloomy memory. The
Irish Cromm Cruaich put prostrated hosts under “ deadly
disgrace” before his golden image—

To him without glory
They would kill their piteous, wretched offspring,
With much wailing and peril,
To pour their blood around Cromm Cruaich.

Milk and corn
They would ask from him speedily
In return for one-third of their healthy issue:
Great was the horror and the scare of him.

The mother-goddess of ancient Europe was similarly
remembered as a devourer of children. She survives in
English folk-lore as a fierce demon. In Leicestershire
she is Black Annis, who is associated with the Easter
“hare hunt”, and has a “cat Anna” form. The earliest
reference to her appears in the following extract from an
eighteenth-century title-deed: ‘All that close or parcel
of land commonly called or known by the name ‘ Black
Anny’s Bower Close’.”

It must not be assumed, however, that Black Annis

was a comparatively recent importation. She appears to

1 Celtic Myth and Legend, p. 39.

62 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

be of as great antiquity as the customs associated with
her name. It is impossible to limit the age of these and
other customs and beliefs which survive to the present
day, not only in rural districts, but even in cities and
among the cultured classes, after so many centuries of
Christian teaching. If they have persisted so long, in
spite of the combined influences of Church, printing-press,
and school, like rank weeds among flowers, for how long
a period, it may be asked, did they flourish before they
were condemned and shown to be unworthy of civilized
communities? There can be little doubt that some have
been inherited from the earliest settlers in these islands,
who brought from the Continent in one of the Inter-glacial
Epochs, and again in the Late Stone Age, the prototypes
of the charms like the lucky pigs which now dangle from
watch-chains and the mascots that figure on motor-cars
and aeroplanes as they once figured on coracles, and boats
hollowed from trunks of trees.

It is not to be marvelled at that the ancient goddess
should be remembered in Leicester district. The city’s
name is fragrant with ancient memories. It was called
after Llyr, the British sea-god,! who became the King
Lear of the legend on which one of Shakespeare’s great
dramas was based. ‘He (King Lear) it was”, wrote
Geoffrey of Monmouth in the twelfth century, “that
builded the city on the River Soar, that in the British
“is called Kaerleir, but in the Saxon Leicester (Leir-
chester). °?

Black Annis Bower was a cave upon the Dane Hills,®
which, during the past century, became filled up with

1 Celtic Myth and Legend, pp. 252 et seq.

2«Kaer” and “Chester” signify cities. London was “ Kaer-lud”, called after the
god Lud, whose name lingers also in “ Ludgate”’.

3 It is suggested that “‘ Dane” is a corruption of the Celtic “ Danann”.

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 63

earth. Over the cave grew an oak-tree, in the branches
of which the hag was wont to conceal herself so that she
might pounce out unawares and seize human victims,
especially children. A local poet has immortalized the
hag and her cave:

An oak, the pride of all the mossy dell,

Spreads its broad arms above the stony cell;

And many a bush, with hostile thorns arrayed,

Forbids the secret cavern to invade.

Here Black Annis “held her solitary reign, the dread and
wonder of the neighbouring plain”. Shepherds attributed
to her the loss of lambs, and mothers their loss of children.
According to a local writer, the children of a past genera-
tion “who went to run on Dane Hills were assured that
Black Anna lay in wait there to snatch them away to her

‘bower’.
“ Oft the gaunt maid the frantic mother cursed”,

sang the poet, who has left the following interesting
description of the hag :—

’T is said the soul of mortal man recoiled

To view Black Annis’ eye, so fierce and wild.
Vast talons, foul with human flesh, there grew
In place of hands, and features livid blue
Glar’d in her visage; whilst the obscene waist
Warm skins of human victims close embraced.!

She appears to be identical with the “ Yellow Muilear-
teach” of Gaelic legend:

Her face was blue black of the lustre of coal,
And her bone-tufted tooth was like red rust.
In her head was one deep pool-like eye
Swifter than a star in a winter sky.?
4 County Folk-lore (Leicestershire and Rutland), by C. J. Billson, Vol. I., London,

1895 (Folk-lore Society’s Publications).
2 Campbell’s West Highland Tales, Vol. 111, p. 138,

Ge CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Another description of her runs:
The name of the dauntless spectre
Was the bald-red, white-maned Muilearteach.
Her face was dark-grey of the hue of coals,
The teeth of her jaw were slanting red;
There was one flabby eye in her head
That quicker moved than lure pursuing mackerel.
Her head bristled dark and grey,
Like scrubwood before hoar-frost.

But the Scoto-Irish hag did not wear “warm skins of

human victims”’.
Oscar caught
The embroidered skirt that was round her body;
They took the apple from the wretch.

She had also a “girdle” like Aphrodite.* In India there
-is a ferocious goddess, who resembles Annis of Leicester.
This is Black Kali. She is usually depicted dancing the
“dance of fertility”, like the Aurignacian and Bushman
deities. Modern artists have given her normal eyes, but
have retained also the primitive forehead eye. She wears
a necklace of human or giant heads, and from her girdle
dangle the hands and skins of victims. It would appear
that Kali, whose body was smeared with the sacrificial
blood, was a form of the earth-goddess; her harvest form
was Jagadgauri, the yellow woman; while as the love and
fertility deity she was the beautiful Lakshmi or Sri, she
was Durga as the goddess of war.2 The Greek goddess
Demeter was black at Phigalia (Chapter VIII), but the
ancient black statue of her was only a memory in the days
of Pausanias. No doubt the rites associated with her
worship were abandoned when “old times had gone and
manners changed”. Still the memory of Black Demeter

1 Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, Vol. IV, pp. 142 et seg. (London, 1891).
2 Indian Myth and Legend, pp. xl, and 149-50.

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 65

survived as the mother of Persephone, the young corn-
goddess. The “Green Demeter” was the green corn,
and the “yellow Demeter” the ripened harvest grain. As
the Roman Ceres her name is perpetuated in cereals—
the gifts of the goddess.

The Libyan goddess Neith was depicted with a green
face. Her symbols included the “shuttle” or thunder-
bolt, the bow and arrows of deities of fertility, lightning,
rain, and war. In Babylonia, where the demoniac forms
of gods and goddesses were perpetuated in metrical charms
and incantations, the “Labartu” (Sumerian “ Dimme”)
was a female demon. She resembled the English Annis
and the Scoto-Irish Muilearteach. This primitive god-
dess haunted mountain and marsh, and devoured stray
children who were not protected against her by wearing
magical charms attached to neck-cords. The Egyptian
Sekhet-Hathor was similarly a destroyer. In her primi-
tive lion-headed Sekhet form, crowned with the solar disk
and urzus serpent, she was sometimes depicted with a
naked dagger grasped tightly in her right hand, and
sometimes with a magic wand. Isis-Hathor, who personi-
fied all the goddesses of Egypt in late times, is referred
to significantly in a Philae text as follows:—

Kindly is she as Bast (the cat-goddess)
Terrible is she as Sekhet.?

The association of the Cretan mother-goddess with
trees and mountains will be dealt with more intimately
in a later chapter. Here, however, it is of interest to
note that the demoniac English deity, Black Annis, was a
tree as well as a cave deity. Offerings of children were

*

1 Golden Bough (“Spirits of the Corn and the Wild”), Vol. I, pp. 35 e¢ seg. (third
edition),
2 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A, Wiedemann, p. 138 (London, 1897).

66 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

probably made to her in the archeological Hunting Period,
as they were to the Irish Cromm Cruaich in the Agri-
cultural Period in return for milk and corn. The oak
in Leicestershire was reverenced as the habitation of the
goddess. In Charnwood Forest the “copt oak” was a
“trysting-place in olden time”. It was long “a place of
assembly. . . . Swain motes (courts for the common
people) were held for regulation of rights and claims on
the forest.” In the Highlands Gaelic-speaking people
who attend a court at the present day refer to it as a
“mote”. Trials were conducted at these assemblies, and
it is not surprising to find that near the Leicestershire
“swain’s hill” is situated “ Hangman’s Stone”. ‘ Royal
Oak Day” (May 29th) is the “ May Day” for Leicester-
shire children.

In early times the maypole, usually made of oak, was
the symbol of authority and justice, as well as of fertility.
“The column of May”, suggests one writer on the subject,
“was the great standard of justice in the Ey Commons,
or Fields of May. Here it was that the people, if they
saw cause, deposed or punished their governors, their
barons, or their kings.” When the maypole was brought
from the forest the youths and maidens joined in singing
songs, of which the chorus was: “ We have brought the
Summer home”’.* Scrimmages took place between youths
_who were attired to represent winter and spring. A

seventeenth-century writer says that “a company of
yonkers, on May-day morning, before day, went into
the country to fetch home a maypole with drumme and
trumpet, whereat the neighbouring inhabitants were af-
frighted, supposing some enemies had landed to sack
them. The pole being thus brought home and set up,
they began to drink healths about it till they could not
Quoted in County Folk-lore, Vol. I, pp. 29 et seq.

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 67

stand so steady as the pole did.”! The maypole customs
and the “motes” held under oak-trees are evidently
relics of tree-worship. Probably the human representative
of the Cretan goddess, seated below her tree, dispensed
justice and ushered in the season of fertility and growth,
like the May Queen.

In Scotland, where there are “ motes” also, it is found
that certain “church lands” were anciently associated
with magical and religious ceremonies.” Twisting paths
leading to wells and hillocks remain as “rights of way”.
It is of interest to find, too, that the habit of swearing by
the earth was also prevalent. In a Gaelic story it is
related that when the heroes formed a compact to avenge
insults and injuries suffered by one of their number they
“lifted a little piece of earth and shouted ‘ Vengeance’”
They thus effected a ceremonial connection with the
Earth Mother. In Greece “the most current formula
of the public oath, when a treaty was to be ratified or an
alliance cemented, was”, writes Dr. Farnell, “the invoca-
tion of Zeus, Helios, and Ge (the Earth Mother). And
doubtless”, he adds, “one of the earliest forms of oath
taken was some kind of primitive communion, whereby
both parties place themselves in sacred contact with some
divine force.”’®

Ge or Gaia was a vague and ancient deity who was
sometimes identified with the “earth snake”. She was
the mother of Titans, Cyclopes, and Hecatoncheires.
Similarly the Scoto-Irish hag known as “ Cailleach” (old
wife), “Grey Eyebrows”, “ Muilearteach”, &c., was

4 Brand’s Antiquities, Vol. I, pp. 238 et seq.

2 According to Czsar, the Druids of Gaul held sessions at consecrated places of
meeting which, from other sources, we learn were called nemeta. In old Irish the
term appears as nemed, and in modern Scottish Gaelic it is neimhidh, which signifies
“church land”. The English rendering is Navity or Nevity.—Professor W. J. Watson
in Celtic Review (1915), Vol. X, pp. 263 et seg.

* Cults of the Greek States, Vol. III, p. 5.

68 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

mother of the giants (Fomorians) who had monstrous
forms, and against whom gods and mortals waged war.
A black lamb was offered to Gaia. The Cailleach was
apparently offered the “black boar”, or the “green
boar”, slain by the heroes of folk-tales.

As the Earth Mother was sworn by, she must have
been conceived of as an active force, capable of assuming
concrete form. Rhea, Demeter, Artemis, and other
deities were probably forms or manifestations of her at
various seasons.

The Cailleach, with blue-black face and roaring
mouth, appears to have been recognized in her Muil-
earteach form as the spirit of tempest on sea and land.
As the mountain-spirit of the Hunting Period she moved
restlessly among the hills, followed by herds of wild
animals, including deer, goats, and swine. In her right
hand she grasped a “hammer”, or “magic wand”, like
the gigantic Cretan goddess on her lion-supported moun-
tain-peak. When standing-stones were struck with the
“magic wand”, they were immediately transformed into
giant warriors, fully armed and ready for battle. After
throwing away this, her symbol of fertility and authority,
the Cailleach herself was transformed into a standing-
stone “looking over the sea”. She was also associated
with rivers and lakes and overflowing wells.

This hag, who, according to one folk-tale, “existed
from the long eternity of the world ”, was not only
the mother of giants but also the ancestress of the
various tribes of mankind. In Ireland she appears to
have been the earlier Danu, the mother of the Danann
gods and people, and Anu, the mountain-hag associated
with “the Paps of Anu”. As the “Old Woman of
Beare” she had “seven periods of youth one after
another”, writes Professor Kuno Meyer, “so that every

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 69

man who had lived with her came to die of old age, and
her grandsons and great-grandsons were tribes and races”’.!
In several stories she appears before a hero as a repulsive
hag and suddenly transforms herself into a beautiful girl.

As the patroness of wild animals the Cailleach re-
sembles Artemis, whom Browning, like certain of the
Greek poets, idealized and consequently robbed of her
primitive savage character.

I shed in Hell o’er my pale people peace,

On Earth, I, caring for the creatures, guard
Each pregnant yellow wolf and foxbitch sleek
And every feathered mother’s callow brood,
And all that love green haunts and loneliness.

Artemis occasionally appeared in the form of a hare, a
hind, or a bear. As a goddess of the chase she might be
depicted seated on the back of a stag or standing with
bow in hand beside a hill surmounted by a boar’s head.
Human sacrifices appear to have been offered to her, and
myths were formed in the process of time to justify the
substitution of wild animals for girls and lads. Spartan
boys were flogged and sprinkled with blood at rites con-
nected with Artemis worship. As a wind-goddess she
demanded the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter when
the fleet assembled at Aulis in Beeotia ready to sail
against Troy. The Scoto-Irish Cailleach had similarly
control over the winds, as had also the hags who “ brewed
breezes” on Jochgrimm mountain in Tyrol. Artemis
haunted the mountains Erymanthus and Taygetus and
the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia. It was in
Crete that she was fabled to have slain the giant Orion
because he loved her.

It will be seen that the idea of the mother-goddess

1 Ancient Irish Poetry, p. 88.

70 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

prevailed in ancient times from India to Ireland and
throughout Egypt. Although she was closely associated
with the Mediterranean or Brown Race, which included
the Neolithic Europeans, the proto-Egyptians, the Su-
merians, Southern Persians, and Aryo-Indians, she was
also a conspicuous figure in the Late Palzolithic Period.
Long before the ideal types of her had evolved in Greece,
she was a terror-inspiring conception among the common
people. In isolated areas, which were untouched by
Greek idealism, her memory was perpetuated as a re-
pulsive and blood-thirsty hag who terrorized the people
and demanded annual dues of human and animal victims.
She was associated with the worship of stones, trees, wild
animals, wells and rivers, mountains and mounds. As
an earth-goddess she was a deity of death, destruction,
fertility, and growth; hunters preyed on her flocks and
had accordingly to propitiate her; pastoralists made
offerings to her to secure the supply of grass, and the
agricultural peoples recognized her as the mother of the
corn-spirits, male and female. She reflected the culture
of various stages of human development, and she assumed
the character of the various communities who developed
the ritual of her worship; she also mirrored the natural
phenomena of the different countries in which she re-
ceived recognition. Yet she was never wholly divested
of her primitive traits. As in Aurignacian times, she
remained as the Mother who was the ancestress of all and
the source of good and evil, or luck and misfortune. In
Crete she was well developed before the earliest island
settlers began to carve her images on gems and seals or
depict them in frescoes. She symbolized the island and
its social life and organization. The Cretans, according
to Plutarch, spoke of Crete as their motherland and not
their fatherland,

ANCIENT PEOPLES OF GODDESS CULT 71

As the mother-goddess in her various forms reflected
the habits of life and the degree of civilization attained by
her worshippers, it is possible also that the prominence
_given to the female principle in religious life caused women
“ to be held in higher esteem than among the peoples of the
god cult. Mr. J. R. Hall, in his Ancient History in the Far
East, referring to the social status of the women in Crete,
says that “it is certain they must have lived on a footing
of greater equality with men than in any other ancient

civilization. . . . We see in the frescoes of Knossos con-_—

clusive indications of an open and free association of men
and women, corresponding to our idea of ‘Society’, at the
Minoan Court, unparalleled till our own day.” Cesar
remarked on the matriarchal conditions which prevailed in
certain parts of ancient Britain. Among the Scottish
Picts descent was reckoned by the female line, as in the
royal families of Egypt and southern European states.
It is possible that in Aurignacian times the women
of the tribes similarly exercised considerable influence.
They appear to have been prominent in the perform-
ance of magical and religious rites. Indeed, it is the
opinion of some anthropologists, like Bachofen, that
women exercised a greater influence than men in develop-
ing primitive religious ideas. “ Wherever’, he comments
“ eynecocracy meets us, the mystery of religion is bound
up with it, and lends to motherhood an incorporation of
some divinity.”1 The evidence gleaned from certain folk-
tales suggests that women trained young huntsmen and
warriors to perform feats of strength and skill. When the
Irish Cuchullin visited Alban, to complete his military
education, he was tested by an Amazon. Brynhild, of
Iceland fame, like Brunhild of the Nibe/ungentied, over-
came many warrriors ere she was won.

1Das Mutterrecht, p. xv.

72 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

The comparative evidence dealt with in this chapter
emphasizes the fact that in dealing with the Cretan and
pre-Hellenic deities account must be taken of the primi-
tive modes of thought which are traceable in the accumu-
lated myths and legends attached to them. In the process
of myth-making many influences were at work. Histori-
cal happenings had to be dealt with as well as the experi-
ences of everyday life ina new environment. The growth
of civilization changed the character of religious beliefs
also. When old savage practices were abandoned, myths
were framed to justify innovations, as when, for instance,
the innocent girl Iphigenia was to be sacrified to Artemis
but was substituted by a stag. It was related that the
goddess carried her off in a cloud and decided that she
should become a priestess. The practice of offering up
strangers in sacrifice obtained probably when a community
began to abhor the idea of offering up one of its own
members.

In the next chapter it will be shown how the study of
ancient myths has led to the discovery of those traces of
ancient civilization in Crete and the Aigean which has
made it possible to reconstruct two thousand years of
pre-Hellenic civilization.

CHAPTER IV
History in Myth and Legend—

Schliemann’s Discoveries

The Hellenes and Pelasgians—Evidence of Folk-legends— Thucydides
on Cretan Origin of A2gean Civilization—Solar-myth Theories—Achilles and
Odysseus as Sun-gods—The “Aryans” and the Idad—Trojan War and Vedic
Myths—Schliemann’s Faith in Tradition—Story of his Life—Resolution in
Boyhood to excavate Troy—How he became a Merchant Prince—Troy located
at Hissarlik—Early Discoveries—First Treasure Hoard—Trouble with Turkish
Officials—Excavations in Greece—Work at Tiryns—The Cyclopean Walls—
Legends of Giant and Fairy Artisans—Hittite Method of Building—Exca-
vations at Mycene—The Lion Gate—Ramsay’s Finds in Phrygia—The Rich
Mycenzan Graves—“ Agamemnon’s Tomb”—A Famous Telegram—Later
Excavations—Schliemann’s Scheme to explore in Crete—Death of the Famous
Excavator.

Tue knowledge possessed by European scholars a gene-
ration ago regarding pre-Hellenic civilization was of
slight and doubtful character. Histories of Greece
devoted small space to the Heroic Age. These usually
began by stating that Greece was so called by the Romans,
that it had been anciently known as Hellas and embraced
several States—Attica, Arcadia, Achza, Boeotia, &c.—and
that the term Hellas had wider significance than was
attached to it in modern times, having been used to
denote the country of the Hellenes wherever they might
happen to be settled, so that Cyrene in North Africa and
Miletus in Asia Minor, for instance, were as essentially
parts of Hellas as Arcadia or Beeotia. It was also recog-

nized that the Hellenes were not the earliest inhabitants
73

44 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

of Greece proper. Before these invaders entered into
possession of the country it had been divided between
various “barbarous tribes”, including the Pelasgi and
their congeners the Caucones and Leleges. Thirlwall,
among others, expressed the view “that the name Pelas-
gians was a general one, like that of Saxons, Franks, or
Alemanni, and that each of the Pelasgian tribes had also
one peculiar to itself”. The Hellenes did not extermin-
ate the aborigines, but constituted a military aristocracy.
Aristotle was quoted to show that their original seat was
near Dodona, in Epirus, and that they first appeared
in Thessaly about 1384 B.c. It was believed that the
Hellenic conquerors laid the foundation of Greek civili-
zation.

Grote, on the other hand, declined to accept the theory
that the Pelasgians constituted the sole indigenous ele-
ment in Greece. “In going through historical Greece”,
he said, “we are compelled to accept the Hellenic aggre-
gate with its constituent elements as a primary fact to
start from. . . . By what circumstances, or out of what
pre-existing elements, the aggregate was brought together
and modified, we find no evidence entitled to credit.
There are, indeed, various names affirmed to designate
the ante-Hellenic inhabitants of many parts of Greece—
the Pelasgi, the Leleges, the Kuretes, the Kaukones, the
Aones, the Temmikes, the Hyantes, the Telchines, the
- Beotian Thracians, the Teleboz, the Ephyri, the Phlegye,
&c. These are names belonging to legendary, not to
historical Greece—extracted out of a variety of conflicting
legends by the logographers and subsequent historians,
who strung together out of them a supposed history of
the past, at a time when the conditions of historical evi-
dence were very little understood. That these names
designated real nations may be true but here our know-

BiorORY IN ‘MYTH AND LEGEND 75

ledge ends. - We have no well-informed witness to tell
us of their times, their limits of residence, their acts, or
their character; nor do we know how far they are identi-
cal with or diverse from the historical Hellenes, whom
we are warranted in calling, not the first inhabitants of
the country, but the first known to us upon any tolerable
evidence.” The attitude assumed by this cautious his-
torian regarding the Pelasgians is still defensible in these
days when different archeologists apply the term in
different ways, one holding, for instance, that the Pelas-
gians were the A¢geans of Mediterranean race, and another
that they were a late “wave” of pre-Hellenic conquerors.
Grote insisted that all Herodotus knew about the Pelas-
gians was that they occupied a few scattered and incon-
siderable townships in historical Greece and spoke a
barbarous language." He pointed out, however, that
our term “barbarian” does not express the same idea as
the Hellenic word, “which involved associations of re-
pugnance”’, although derived from it. ‘The Greeks”,
he explained, “spoke indiscriminately of the extra-Hel-
lenic world with all its inhabitants whatever might be the
gentleness of their character and whatever might be their
degree of civilization”. All non-Hellenes were, as the
Chinese put it, “ foreign devils”.

Historians who were more inclined than Grote to
attach weight to folk-traditions were yet unable to gather
much from those of the Hellenes regarding their origin,
except that they professed to have come from “the East”
and claimed to be descendants of an eponymous ancestor
called Hellen. The story of this patriarch and his family
is given in the Hesiodic version of the World’s Ages myth.
When Zeus resolved to destroy the wicked Bronze Race
by sending a great flood, he spared Deucalion and his wife

1 History of Greece, Vol. II, pp. 350 ef seq.
(C 808 ) 9

46 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Pyrrha, who took refuge in an ark. According to one
tradition, this couple, on praying to Zeus, were enabled
to repeople the devastated world by throwing over their
shoulders stones which were transformed into human
beings. These were “the Stone Folk”. Another
tradition made Deucalion the ancestor of the whole Greek
race, through his son Hellen, who had three children,
named Dorus and A®olus, the ancestors of the Dorians
and /Eolians, and Xuthus, whose sons Achzus and Ion,
“were the progenitors of the Achzans and Ionians.

The period that elapsed between the early settlement
of the Hellenes and the siege of Troy was called the
Heroic Age, after the fourth Hesiodic Age of the World,
or the Homeric Age, during which the civilization depicted
in those great epics the J/iad and the Odyssey had full
development.

Historians parted company when they came to deal
with the prehistoric period. Thirlwall was inclined to
sift historical matter from the legends. Grote, however,
was frankly sceptical. “That which I note as Terra
Incognita”, he said, “is in his (Thirlwall’s) view a land
which may be known up to a certain point, but the map
which he draws of it contains so few ascertained places as
to differ very little from absolute vacuity.”? Dealing
with the Trojan war, he declared that, “though literally
believed, reverentially cherished, and numbered among
- the gigantic phenomena of the past by the Grecian public,
it is in the eyes of modern enquiry essentially a legend
and nothing more”. His answer to the question as to
whether the war ever took place was: ‘As the possibility
of it cannot be denied, so neither can the reality of it be
afirmed”’.2 We who are “wise after the event”’ may
rail at Grote, but it must be remembered that he wrote at

1 History of Greece, Vol. I, p. 358. * Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 434-5.

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND 77

a time when little was known regarding ancient Egypt,
Babylonia, and Assyria, except what could be derived from
classical writers and Biblical references. He, however,
recognized that the myths had a psychological if not a
historical value when he wrote: ‘‘ Two courses, and two
only, are open: either to pass over the myths altogether,
which is the way in which modern historians treat the old
British fables, or else to give an account of them as myths;
to recognize and respect their specific nature, and to
abstain from confounding them with ordinary and certi-
fiable history. There are good reasons for pursuing the
second method in reference to the Grecian myths, and
when so considered they constitute an important chapter
in the history of the Grecian mind, and, indeed, in that of
the human race generally.”"? He did not agree with those,
- however, who believed that the Homeric picture of life
was wholly fictitious. Indeed, he drew, like others, upon
the epics for evidence regarding customs and manners of
life in early Greek times, although he held they contained
‘no historical facts”.

It was generally recognized that the petty states of
Greece were ruled over by hereditary chiefs, whose power
was limited by a military aristocracy. ‘Piracy was an
honourable occupation,” as one writer put it, “and war
the delight of noble souls.” Some historians added, on
the authority of Thucydides,’ that the commencement of
Grecian civilization might be dated from the reign of
King Minos of Crete, who had cleared the A’gean Sea of
pirates. Grote could not, on the other hand, believe that
the Minos legends had any historical value. ‘Here we
have”, he wrote, “conjectures derived from the analogy
of the Athenian maritime empire of historical times, sub-.

1 History of Greece, Vol. I, pp. 651-2.
2 History of the Peloponnesian War, I, 3-4.

78 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

stituted in place of the fabulous incidents and attached to
the name of Minos.’’*

It should not surprise us that the so-called “ doubting
Thomases” among the historians hesitated to make use
of myths and legends. Grote held that if he were to pro-
ceed with a view to detect a historical base in the stories
of Troy and Thebes, he would be compelled to deal
similarly with the myths of “Zeus in Crete, of Apollo
and Artemis in Delos, of Hermes and of Prometheus”.
If Achilles was to be taken seriously, although he was of
supernatural origin, what of Bellerophon, Perseus, Theseus,
and Hercules? These would also have to be “ handled
objectively ”.

In time the exponents of the new science of Compara-
tive Mythology, which at its inception was based chiefly
on philological evidence, attracted much attention and im- _
pressed not a few serious students of classical history with
their theory that classical legends were renderings of im-
memorial religious myths, the gods and goddesses having
been transformed into human heroes and heroines. “In
Greek mythology”, it was contended, “each different
aspect of nature had many different names, because a few
simple elements crystallized into many different forms.
This is why there are so many gods and goddesses.” As
much may be granted, although, as is now believed, the
view is somewhat narrow. But when the theory was
- given practical application it led to rather too sweeping
conclusions of rather fanciful character. ‘ Zeus”, wrote
one authority, “is married to many different wives. The
bright sky must look down on many lands. His visits to
different countries are thus explained. . . . Achilles is
child of the sea-goddess; so the sun often appears to rise
out of the water. His bride is torn from him, and he

1 History of Greece, Vol. I, p. 311.

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND 79

sulks in his tent; so the sun must leave the dawn and be
hidden by dark clouds. He lends his armour to Patroclus
except the spear; none other can wield the spear of
Achilles: so no other can equal the power of the sun’s
rays.” And so on until the absurdity concluded with:
“ Achilles tramples on the dead body of Hector, but
Hector is of dark powers, though noble in himself; so
a blazing sunset tramples down the darkness. Finally,
Achilles is slain by an arrow from a Trojan. He is
vulnerable only in the heel, but the arrow finds him there.
“So the sun is conquered by the darkness in his turn, and
disappears, a short-lived brilliant thing.”

The hero of the Odyssey met a similar fate. “Odysseus
is the sun in another character, as a wanderer, and his ad-
ventures describe the general phenomena of daytime from
the rising to the setting of the sun... . His journey is
full of strange changes, of happiness and misery, success
and reverses, like the lights and shadows of a gloomy day.”

The Jiad, as a narrative, was regarded with contempt.
“There is nothing noble or elevated in the gods or
heroes”, remarked one solar-symbolist, who referred to
himself as “one of the advanced thinkers”. “Everyone
knows”, he went on, with unconscious humour, “ that
the Iliad is a poem which tells two stories: of a war
between the Greeks and Trojans to recover a Grecian
woman named Helen, who had run away from her lawful
husband with a Trojan hero named Paris, and carried a
great treasure with her; also of the anger of Achilles, a
Grecian hero, and the dreadful consequences it brought
upon the Grecian army encamped upon the plains around
Troy.” A physical explanation of this “petty legend”
had to be sought for. Professor Max Muller declared:
“The siege of Troy is a repetition of the daily siege of
the East by the solar powers that are robbed of their

80 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

brightest treasures in the West”. One of his critics and
followers, Mr. Cox, remarked with much justification
that this was “not quite plain”, but he only added to
the confusion by urging a new hypothesis. “Few will
venture to deny”, he remarked, with the characteristic
confidence of the theorist, ‘that the stealing of the bright
clouds of sunset by the dark powers of night, the weary
search for them through the long night, the battle with
the robbers, as the darkness is driven away by the ad-
vancing chariot of the lord of light, are favourite subjects
with the Vedic poets.” So was Greece robbed of its
heroes and Troy swept out of existence. “If such a war
took place”, Mr. Cox argued, “it must be carried back
to a time preceding the dispersion of the Aryan tribes
from their original home.”

But while these and other examples of what Mr.
Andrew Lang has characterized as “scholarly stupidity ”
impressed not a few prominent men, a small band of
students strenuously declined to regard the Homeric
legends as products of traditional myths “based on the
various phenomena of the earth and heavens”. One of
these was the self-educated merchant, Henry Schliemann,
whose faith in Homer led him to make discoveries which
have thrown a flood of light on early Agean civilization,
and incidentally shattered forever the theories of the
solar mythologists. “The Trojan War”, he wrote in
' 1878, “has for a long time past been regarded by many
eminent scholars as a myth, of which however they vainly
endeavoured to find the origin in the Vedas. But in
all antiquity the siege and conquest of Ilium by the
Greek army under Agamemnon was considered as an
undoubted historical fact, and as such it is accepted by
the great authority of Thucydides! The tradition has

1 Thucydides, 1, 8, 10.

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND 81

even retained the memory of many details of that war
which have been omitted by Homer. For my part, |
have always firmly believed in the Trojan War; my full
faith in Homer and in the tradition has never been shaken
by modern criticism, and to this faith of mine I am in-
debted for the discovery of Troy and its treasure.” *

The story of Heinrich Schliemann’s life is a fitting
prelude to an account of his epoch-making discoveries in
Asia Minor and Greece which “led up”, as Mr. Hawes
says, “to the revelations in Crete from 1900 onwards”.
He was born on 6th January, 1822, in the little German
town of Neu Buckow, in the duchy of Mecklenberg-
Schwerin, and was scarcely twelve months old when his
father, a Protestant clergyman, removed to Ankershagen,
near Waren. At this village the future archeologist, who
was a precocious child, received impressions before he was
ten years old which influenced his whole life and prompted
him to achieve renown as a pioneer in the domain of pre-
Hellenic research. Ankershagen was enveloped in an
old-world atmosphere; it was indeed an ideal “ homeland”,
with its antiquities, legends, and superstitions, for one of
Heinrich Schliemann’s temperament and mental leanings.
The summer-house in the manse garden was reputed to
be haunted by the ghost of his father’s predecessor,
Pastor von Russdorf, and near at hand was a small pond
out of which each night at the stroke of twelve a spirit
maid was believed to rise up, grasping a silver cup in her
hand. In the village a ditch-surrounded mound—one of
the kind called a Hunengrab, or “Hun’s grave’’—had
attached to it a story about a great robber who buried in
it his favourite child in a golden cradle. Legends of
similar character are told regarding “ giants’ graves”’ in
these islands. ‘Treasure was also said to lie concealed

1 Mycena, Pp. 334+

82 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

under a round tower in the local land-proprietor’s garden.
“My faith in these treasures was so great”, Schliemann
wrote in after years, “that whenever I heard my father
complain of his poverty, I expressed my astonishment
that he did not dig up the silver bowl or the golden
cradle and so become rich.’’*

An ancient castle also made a strong appeal to the
boy’s imagination. It was supposed to have the usual
long underground passage leading to somewhere, and to
be visited nightly by awesome spectres. At one time,
the legend ran, it was the abode of a notorious robber.
knight, Henning Bradenkirl, who buried his treasure and
committed suicide when, revelation having been made of
his designs on the life of the Duke of Mecklenberg, his
stronghold was besieged by that great nobleman. Hen-
ning found no rest in his grave, and it was whispered
among the young folks that time and again he had thrust
out one of his legs with purpose apparently to visit the
spot where his hoard was concealed. “I often begged
my father”, Schliemann has told, “to excavate the tomb,
in order to see why the foot no longer grew out.” This
belief that there was a kernel of truth in ancient legends
caused him ultimately to search for traces of ancient Troy,
and open the graves of heroes who, according to classic
narratives, had been buried with their armour and rich
ornaments. ‘ My firm faith in the traditions”, he wrote
in 1877, “made me undertake my late excavations in the
Acropolis (of Mycenz) and led to the discovery of the
five tombs, with their immense treasures.” So the boy
was “father of the man”

The impecunious clergyman of Ankershagen cast over
the mind of his son, Heinrich, the romantic glamour of
classic myth and legend. The nursery stories he related

1 Tlios, pp. 1 et seq. 2 Mycena, p. 335+

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND 83

were not of elves and giants, but of the last days of
Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were then being ex-
cavated and greatly talked about, and of the great deeds
of Homer’s heroes on the windy plain of Troy.

It was a memorable day in Heinrich’s life when he
received as a Christmas present, in his eighth year, an
illustrated child’s history of the world—one of those
popular works which stimulate young minds with the
desire to acquire knowledge. An engraving depicted the
last scene in the siege of Troy. The “topless towers of
Ilium” were wrapped in flames, and amidst the smoke
and confusion the wounded warrior A‘neas was seen
taking flight, carrying his father Anchises on his broad
back, and leading by the hand his son Ascanius. From
that hour the spectacle of mighty Troy haunted the mind
of the little German boy, and the Trojan War became as
familiar to him as if it had been waged on the village
green and Ankershagen, instead of Troy, had been sacked.

Heinrich failed in his attempts to impress his boy
friends with glowing versions of Homer’s narrative, but
he infected with his enthusiasm the minds of two girl
companions. One of these, Minna Meincke, a farmer's
daughter, promised to marry him when she grew up, and
assist him to discover the Hun robber’s golden cradle,
the silver cup of the pond nymph, the treasure concealed
by Henning, and to accompany him to the land of dreams
to explore the ruins of ancient Troy. Strange to relate,
half a century afterwards, not Minna, but another who
became Mrs. Henry Schliemann, actually did help her
husband in his famous excavations, and one of the results
of their joint labours was the finding of the most valuable
treasure any archeologists have ever had the luck to
uncover.

Heinrich’s father intended to give him a classical

2) CCRE Tes PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

education, but fell into financial difficulties, with the
result that when the boy was fourteen he became appren-
ticed to a village grocer. At nineteen he injured himself
when lifting a heavy cask, and went to Hamburg, where
he secured a situation as a cabin-boy on a brig bound for
Venezuela. The vessel, however, was wrecked on a
sand-bank off the Island of Texel during stormy weather,
but fortunately the crew escaped in a small boat.
Heinrich afterwards secured a situation at a Hamburg
warehouse. Having a good deal of leisure time at his
disposal, he studied languages with so much success that
he acquired a wonderful knowledge of Dutch, English,
Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese.

At twenty-four he was employed by the firm of
B. H. Schroder & Co., and, having by this time obtained
a knowledge of Russian, he was sent to St. Petersburg.
He prospered there and began to trade on his own
account, dealing chiefly in indigo. At forty he found
himself a millionaire. Ere he retired, however, he
studied modern and ancient Greek and Latin under
Professor Ludgwig von Muralt.

Having wound up his affairs, he began to travel ex-
tensively. For several months he resided in China and
Japan, and wrote on his return his first book La Chine
et Le Japon, which was published at Paris, where he
settled down to study archeology. The time was draw-
~ ing nigh when he could visit the scenes of Homeric glory,
and make search for traces of ancient Troy and the graves
containing treasure. He was resolved to realize the
dream of his boyhood, which he had treasured during the
years so full of business anxieties and cares. “Father,”
he had once said, when his childish eyes were fascinated
by the engraving of Troy, “if such walls once existed,
they cannot possibly have been completely destroyed ;

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND 85

vast ruins of them must still remain, but they are hidden
beneath the dust of ages.’ His father had shaken his
head, but, to pleasure the lad, admitted that it was possible,
and then agreed that when they were able to do so they
would both search for and excavate the ruins of the famous
city.
In 1868 Schliemann paid his first visit to the scenes
of his future triumphs and wrote a book entitled Ithaca,
the Peloponnesus, and Troy, in which he ran counter to the
theories of those contemporary scholars who believed that
Troy had existed, by locating its site, not on an inland
summit near Bunarbashi, but farther north and near the
seashore on the top of the hillock of Hissarlik. He
also announced where he believed the graves of the
Atreide at Mycenz could be located. For this original
treatise he received his doctor’s degree at Rostock.

In the spring of 1870 Dr. Schliemann put _ his
theories to the test by beginning to dig at Hissarlik.
At the depth of 16 feet the first wall was laid bare,
and he was then fully convinced that success would
crown his efforts. Accordingly he made preparations for
excavation work on an extensive scale. The Turkish
authorities hampered him greatly, however, and it was
not until late in the following year that he could proceed
with the work. In the following year a great depth had
been reached, but although a broad trench laid bare a
series of walls and a fine piece of Greek sculpture, no
definite conclusions could be reached from the results,
promising and suggestive as these were. Work was re-
sumed early in 1873, when the weather was so cold that
“of an evening”, wrote Dr. Schliemann, “we had nothing
to keep us warm except an enthusiasm for discovering
Troy”. The weeks went past, and at length Fortune
smiled and the dreams of boyhood began to find rich

86 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

realization. One day, during the dinner hour, when no
workmen were near, Dr. Schliemann and his wife dis-
covered a treasure hoard of gold and diadems and daggers,
silver jars and copper vessels and weapons, which they
hurriedly carried off and concealed. Its mere monetary
value was not far short of £1000. During the winter
Dr. Schliemann wrote an account of his discoveries which
was published in book form under the title Traan
Antiquities. He had cut through several successive towns
on the hillock of Hissarlik. The second city from the
bottom was named by him “Homer’s Troy”; he called
its largest building ‘“‘ Priam’s Palace”, and the hoard he
had discovered with his wife, “Priam’s Treasure”. Most
archeologists now believe, however, that the sixth city,
which was much more extensive than the second, was the
capital celebrated by Homer.

Schliemann’s theories were ridiculed by the “authori-
ties” in every country in Europe. He was a “rank out-
sider” and regarded with suspicion by the theorists who
were convinced that Troy could not possibly have been
situated at Hissarlik. Comic papers made fun of him as
a dreamer of vain dreams, but a few open-minded scholars
were profoundly impressed and anxious for more informa-
tion. Schliemann was not discouraged either by learned
criticism or superficial ridicule. What concerned him
most was the attitude assumed by the Turkish Govern-
“ment, which was not entirely free from the suspicion or
blackmailing propensities. Operations at Hissarlik had
to be suspended, but the undaunted pioneer did not
waste his time. He turned his back upon Troy and was
led to Mycenz, in Greek territory, by the ghost of Aga-
memnon. There and at Tiryns his excavations resulted in
the discovery of traces of a culture similar to that found
in the sixth city at Hissarlik. The results of this archeo-

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND — 87

logical “campaign”, which was carried on during 1876-7,
were published in Mycene in 1878. A preface contri-
buted by the late Mr. W. E. Gladstone contains several
passages which reflect the interest which was aroused
throughout Europe at the time by Schliemann’s work.
“When the disclosures at Tiryns and Mycene were
announced in England,” wrote Mr. Gladstone, “my own
first impression was that of a strangely bewildered admira-
tion, combined with a preponderance of sceptical against
believing tendencies, in regard to the capital and dominat-
ing subject of the Tombs in the Agora. 1am bound to
say that reflection and fuller knowledge have nearly
turned the scales the other way. . . . I find, upon perus-
ing the volume of Dr. Schliemann, that the items of
evidence, which connect his discoveries generally with the
Homeric poems, are more numerous than I had surmised
from the brief outline with which he favoured us upon
his visit to England in the spring.” ?

Tiryns, now called Paleocastron, was, according to
Pausanius, named after Tiryns, a son of Argos. It was
the reputed birthplace of Hercules, and famed for its
Cyclopean walls. ‘The circuit wall,” wrote Pausanias,
“which is the only remaining ruin, was built by the
Cyclopes. It is composed of unwrought stones, each of
which is so large that a team of mules cannot even shake
the smallest one: small stones have been interposed in
order to consolidate the large blocks.” ”

Mycene was also reputed to have been built by these
giant artisans, who numbered seven, and came from
Lycia. It was probably on account of this legend that,
as Schliemann suggested, the whole of the Argolis was
referred to by Euripides as “Cyclopean land”. Similarly,

many ruins in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia were credited

1 Mycena, Preface, p. vis 2 Pausanias, II, 25, 8, and Mycena, pp. 2-3.

88 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

by tradition to Semiramis, while the Egyptian Sesostris
was supposed to have erected gigantic works in various
localities. This habit of accounting for ancient remains
as the handiwork of mythical and semi-mythical persons
was of great antiquity and widespread character. Fairies
and elves and giants were supposed to have erected
dolmens and stone circles. Gaelic-speaking people in
Lewis at the present day, for instance, refer to the stand-
ing stones at Callernish as Tursachan, a name which
has been derived from the Norse word Thurs, a giant
or goblin. In Cumberland another circle is associated
with the memory of the mythical giantesses “ Long Meg
and her daughters”. Several promontories in different
localities have been credited likewise to fairy artisans who
were endeavouring to bridge over an arm of the sea.
Thor, according to the Teutonic wonder-tales, formed
valleys by smiting a mountain range with his great hammer,
while the “Flint Hills” were formed by the fragments
he shattered from the great flint boulder flung towards
him by a giant enemy. In Scotland numerous hillocks
are referred to as spillings from the creel of the giantess
(Cailleach) who erected mountain houses for her children.
This custom of attributing not only hills, but also build-
ings, to supernatural agencies has survived even into
Christian times. Not a few ruins of early chapels in
these islands have still associated with them folk-tales
about fairy builders, who accomplished their work in a
single night.

Schliemann did not attach historical importance to the
legends of Hercules, who was reputed to have held sway
at Tiryns for a prolonged period. Indeed, like Max
Muller, he was inclined to regard the famous folk-hero
as asun-god. But he was convinced that the Cyclopean
walls were of great antiquity, and engaged in systematic

THE LION GATE, MYCEN/E

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND 89

excavations with purpose to obtain evidence which would
connect the civilization of Tiryns with that of his Homeric
Troy. He found a number of terra-cotta female idols,
with exaggerated breasts, and terra-cotta cows, which had
evidently a religious significance. These he connected
with the goddess Hera. Examples of primitive pottery
were also brought to light, including hand-polished black
vases and bulky jars. When he reached the prehistoric
strata he collected obsidian knives, whorls of blue and
green stone, &c. In some places he found the remains
of walls built on the rock and of water conduits of
rough unhewn stones. The stones of the ancient Cyclo-
pean wall measured about 7 feet long and 3 feet thick
in most cases, but some were of even greater dimen-
sions.

At Mycenz, “situated in the depth of the horse-
feeding Argos”, as Homer sang,’ Schliemann’s early
researches were more productive. Here he set out to -
prove his theory that the graves of the Atreide were
situated not outside but inside the citadel wall. He
found that the wall revealed three different methods of
construction, which he assigned to three separate periods.
These are the Cyclopean, in which large boulders were
secured by small blocks; the Polygonal, with accurately
hewn joints; and the Rectangular, in which the blocks
were “dovetailed”.

In the north-west corner he cleared the famous “Lion’s
Gate”. It measured 10 feet 8 inches in height, and was
g feet 6 inches wide at the top, and 10 feet 3 inches at
the bottom. The great lintel, which excited admiration,
was found to be 15 feet long and 8 feet broad. At this
point the wall, constructed on the Rectangular system, is
composed of stones 6 and 7 feet in length, many of which

1 Odyssey, III, 263.

go CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

are notched to fit into the corners, or jutting points, hewed
in others. This system of rough “ dovetailing ” is char-
acteristic of Hittite buildings. The Euphrates River wall
at Carchemish, the oldest known engineering construction
in the world, which has been utilized by the engineers in
connection with a “Bagdad railway” bridge at this point,
is a characteristic example of the Rectangular style of
architecture.

Above the great lintel of the principal entrance to the
Acropolis of Mycenz lies the great limestone slab sculp-
tured in relief, on which two lions rampant, heraldically
opposed, rest their forepaws on the “altar” with its
shapely pillar “crowned by a curious capital, composed of
a fillet, moulding, roll, and abacus”. Similar lion and
pillar groups have been found by Professor Ramsay in
Phrygia. In one instance the goddess Cybele takes the
place of the pillar. “The idea of the lions as guardians
of the gate arose”, Professor Ramsay considers, “in a
country where Cybele was worshipped, and where the
dead chief was believed to be gathered to his mother, the
goddess. .. . The Phrygians adapted an old heraldic
type to represent the idea. . . . In the interchange of
artistic forms and improvements in civilization which
obtained between Phrygia and the Greeks, the lion type
passed into Mycene during the ninth, or more probably
the eighth century B.c.””?

Schliemann’s guide to Mycene was Pausanias, who
wrote”: “Amongst other remains of the wall is the gate
on which stand lions. They (the walls and the gate) are
said to be the work of the Cyclopes, who built the wall
for Proteus at Tiryns. In the ruins of Mycene is the
fountain called Perseia, and the subterranean buildings of

1 Journal of the Hellenic Society, Vol. V, p. 242.
? Pausanias, II, 16, 6, and Mycena, pp. 59, 60.

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND gI

Atreus and his children, in which they stored their trea-
sures. There is the sepulchre of Atreus, and the tombs
of the companions of Agamemnon, who on their return
from Ilium were killed at a banquet by Aégisthus. The
identity of the tomb of Cassandra is called in question by
the Lacedemonians of Amycle. There is the tomb of
Agamemnon and that of his charioteer Eurymedon, and
of Electra. Teledamus and Pelops were buried in the
same sepulchre, for it is said that Cassandra bore these
twins, and that, while as yet infants, they were slaughtered
by A®gisthus together with their parents. Hellanicus
(495-411 B.c.) writes that Pylades, who was married to
Electra with the consent of Orestes, had by her two sons,
Medon and Strophius. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus were
buried at a little distance from the wall, because they were
thought unworthy to have their tombs inside of it, where
Agamemnon reposed and those who were killed together
with him.”

This passage had been misinterpreted by certain
writers, and Schliemann insisted, before he began to dig,
that the wall referred to was not .the city wall, as they
believed, but the wall of the Acropolis. The city, besides,
he argued, was in ruins in Pausanias’s day (170 a.D.),
and he might not have seen the remnants of the smaller
city wall. Schliemann put his theory to proof by sinking
a number of shafts, and then undertaking extensive ex-
cavations. When he had cleared away the debris from
the Lion’s Gate, some of which had been cast there when
the Argives captured the Acropolis in the fifth century B.c.,
he found evidence that the city had been partially re-
occupied after its fall, although Diodorus Siculus! and
Strabo* had made statements to the contrary.

Schliemann penetrated to the lower and earlier city of

1XI, 65. 2 VIII, p. 372.
£0 808) 10

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Mycene and there made discovery of great “beehive
tombs”, which were the “ Treasuries ” of Pausanias.

Schliemann excavated also five shaft tombs, and be-
lieved they were those of Agamemnon and his companions,
who on their return from Troy were murdered by Clytem-
nestra and her paramour Aigisthus. ‘They were of similar
construction, and the burials appeared to him to have
been simultaneous. ‘The five tombs of Mycene, or, at
least, three of them,’’ he wrote, “contained such enor-
mous treasuries that they cannot but have belonged to
members of the royal family.” Thousands of pounds
worth of antique valuables were discovered in these
mysterious underground chambers.

An immense impression was made all over Europe on
the publication of the following characteristic telegram
which Schliemann dispatched to the King of Greece,
announcing his great discovery.

“Mycene, 16th (28th) November, 1876.

“With extreme joy I announce to Your Majesty that
' I have discovered the tombs which tradition, as echoed
by Pausanias, designates as the sepulchre of Agamemnon,
of Cassandra, of Eurymadon and their companions and
their comrades, all slain during the repast by Clytemnestra
and her lover Agisthus. ‘These tombs were surrounded
by a double parallel circle of plaques, which can only have
been erected in the honour of great personages. I have
found in the sepulchres immense treasures in the way of
archaic objects of pure gold. These treasures of them-
selves are enough to fill a large museum which shall be
the most marvellous in the world, and which during
centuries to come will draw to Greece thousands of visitors
from every country. As I work purely for the love of
science, 1 make naturally no claim to these treasures,

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND 93

which I give with the liveliest enthusiasm intact to Greece.
May it be God’s will that these treasures will become the
corner stone of an immense national wealth.

“HEINRICH SCHLIEMANN.”

It is not believed nowadays that Schliemann located
the tombs of Agamemnon and his followers, but hap-
pened instead on those of royal personages who flourished
in a different age. The authority of Pausanias is not
sufficient to settle the problem. When that distinguished
writer visited the ruins of Mycenz over a thousand years
had elapsed since Troy had fallen. Agamemnon bulked
prominently in folk-imagination, and was identified with
the memorials of forgotten rulers. The process involved
is a familiar one. In our own country King Arthur has
similarly had attached to his memory the deeds of mythical
beings who dwelt in Fairyland or selected high hills as
their. seats, while in the Highlands as recent a hero as
Prince Charlie has been associated with hiding-places, in
districts he never visited, as far north as Caithness.

But Schliemann’s confident statement regarding the
“tomb of Agamemnon”’ need not detract from the value
of the services he has rendered to archeology. In making
search for traces of the heroes of his boyhood he achieved
well-deserved renown as the pioneer who “ opened to us
the door into one of the sealed chambers of the past”.
He has caused early Greek history to be rewritten, and
it is due to his example and triumphs that it is now
possible to present a partial reconstruction of several
thousand years of A®‘gean civilization.

It is indirectly to Schliemann, too, that we owe the
late Mr. Andrew Lang’s famous sonnet on Homeric

Unity.

94 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

4

The sacred keep of Ilion is rent

By shaft and pit; foiled waters wander slow
Through plains where Simois and Scamander went
To war with gods and heroes long ago.

Not yet to tired Cassandra, lying low

In rich Mycenz, do the Fates relent:

The bones of Agamemnon are a show,

And ruined is his royal monument.

The dust and awful treasures of the Dead,
Hath Learning scattered wide, but vainly thee,
Homer, she meteth with her tool of lead,

And strives to rend thy songs; too blind to see
The crown that burns on thine immortal head
Of indivisible supremacy.

Flushed with his Mycenzan successes, Schliemann was
ready to return to Troy in the summer of 1878. But his
difficulties with the Turkish officials delayed him. These,
however, were overcome on his behalf by another famous
explorer, Sir Austen Henry Layard, of Assyrian fame,
who happened to be at the time British Ambassador at
Constantinople. “I fulfil a most agreeable duty”, Schlie-
mann wrote in his J/ios, “in now thanking his Excellency
publicly and most cordially for all the services he has
rendered me, without which I could never have brought
my work to a close.”

While waiting for his firman from the Turkish
Government, Schliemann began operations on the Island
of Ithaca, and discovered on Mount tos a king’s palace
and nearly two hundred houses of Cyclopean construction.
Then he proceeded to Troy, where he was hampered for
a time by a Turkish commissioner. In the following
year Professor Virchow joined him, and he received visits
also from other scholars of repute. In 1880 he published
his great work J/ios. Dr. Dorpfeld joined him in 1882,

HISTORY IN MYTH AND LEGEND 95

and together they operated chiefly in the city which has
now been identified with Homer’s Troy. In 1884 the
results of later exploration were recorded in Schliemann’s
Troja, to which a preface was contributed by Professor
Sayce. The tireless excavator then resumed operations
at Tiryns, where an ancient palace was discovered. The
work was continued here in the following year by Dr.
Dérpfeld, who wrote several chapters in Schliemann’s
next book, to which a preface was contributed by Pro-
fessor F. Adler.

Schliemann next turned attention to Egypt, where he
excavated with Virchow with much success, and he desired
also to operate in Crete, on Knossos Hill, but the political
conditions on the island made systematic archeological
work in that quarter an impossibility, while the Turkish
Government showed no enthusiasm regarding his pro-
posal. It was not considered desirable that the islanders
should be reminded of the greatness of their ancestors.
He had therefore to abandon his scheme to make search
in Crete for “the original home of Mycenzan civiliza-
tion”

In 1890 Dr. C. Schuchardt, Director of the Kestner
Museum, in Hanover, published his critical work on
Schliemann’s excavations, in which he wrote: “ Dr. Schlie-
mann is now in his sixty-ninth year, but his activity and
love of enterprise show no signs of decay. We may still
look to him for many additions to science, and we hope
to thank him for disclosing the heroic age of Greece in
the periods of its prime and of its decadence, which may
perhaps be found in Crete, the land of Minos.”’?

On 26th December in the same year, however, Schlie-
mann expired suddenly in Naples. His body was taken
to Athens and buried in the Greek cemetery near the

1 Schliemann’s Excavations, translated by E. Sellers, p. 16,

96 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

llissos, a lofty monument being erected to his memory.
“ He lies”, writes Mr. Sellers, “in the land he loved so
well; but the example of noble ambition and patient
research which he set before the world will long abide
as a living spirit, not only among archzologists, but
among all who anywhere in the civilized world have
caught something of his devotion and enthusiasm for
classical learning and antiquity.”

Among the honours conferred upon the great man
during the closing years of his life was the degree of
D.C.L. of Oxford and the fellowship of Queen’s College.
The Royal Institute of British Architects awarded him
a gold medal, in which he took great pride. It is of
interest to note that he was a naturalized American
citizen.

CHAPTER V
Crete as the Lost Atlantis

Quest for Home of Pre-Hellenic Culture—The Legendary Clues—Myth
of the Lost Atlantis—Schliemann’s Remarkable Bequest—His Grandson’s
Researches—Supposed Connection of Egyptian with Central American Civil-
ization—Views of Geologists regarding a Submerged Continent—Geikie versus
Hull—Evidence of New and Old World Fauna—The Race Problem—Plato’s
Atlantis Narrative—Lost Island identified with Crete—Sea Trade, Palaces, and
Bull Fights—Greek and Libyan Traditions—How the Lost Atlantis Myth
Originated—Legend of Zeus and Europé—Water-bull and Water-horse Stories
—The Legendary Minos and Osiris—The Minotaur—Story of Dedalus and
Babylonian and Indian Parallels—Athens and Crete—The Theseus Legend—
Value of Traditions.

AuruoucH Schliemann’s theories regarding Priam’s trea-
sure and Agamemnon’s tomb aroused a storm of criticism,
it had to be recognized that he discovered traces of a
brilliant pre-Hellenic civilization which had flourished in
Greece and Asia Minor for many long centuries. The
problem as to where it had originated, however, remained
obscure, and towards its solution not a few skilled arche-
ologists began to direct their energies. Indeed, the quest
soon became hot and fast. The cumulative evidence of
classical writers seemed to point to Crete. Homer,
Hesiod, Strabo, Thucydides, and Herodotus had per-
petuated traditions regarding King Minos, the great law-
giver, who had cleared the Aigean of pirates. He was
reputed to have been a son of Zeus, and that deity,

according to one legend, had been born in a Cretan cave.
97

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Schliemann gave serious consideration to these clues, and
had endeavoured, as has been stated, to make arrange-
ments to excavate at Knossos. He also conducted re-
searches with Virchow at Sais, in northern Egypt, but
no discovery was made to indicate that pre-Hellenic
civilization had emanated from the land of the Pharaohs
in its fully-developed form. The larger problem appears
to have engaged his mind: Where did Egyptian civiliza-
tion originate?

Ere he died Schliemann formulated a bold theory to
account not only for early northern European and North
African civilization but also that of Central America as
well. It was based on Plato’s myth of the Lost Atlantis.
He was convinced that this great island had had real
existence, and that colonies of its inhabitants settled in
Mexico, Egypt, and Greece at a remote period, intro-
ducing into these countries a full-blown culture.

Here, again, as will be shown, Schliemann had intui-
tive perception of a basis of fact embedded in the debris
of tradition. Had he lived long enough he would no
doubt have adjusted his view in the light of those dis-
coveries which have been made during recent years, and
accepted Crete as the mysterious island referred to by
Plato,

The Atlantis theory appealed as strongly to the great
pioneer’s imagination during the last months of his life as
did his Troy theory in the days of his boyhood. But the
frailties of old age oppressed him, and he realized that he
could never put it to proof. He desired, however, that
the work should be undertaken by one of his kinsmen,
and committed his secret to writing, enclosing his manu-
script in a sealed envelope inscribed as follows:—

This can be opened only by a member of my family who
solemnly vows to devote his life to the researches outlined therein.

ERETE AS THE LOSr ATLANTIS 99

Not long before he expired he asked for a pencil and
piece of paper and wrote:

Confidential addition to the sealed envelope. Break the owl-
headed vase. Pay attention to the contents. It concerns Atlantis.
Investigate the east of the ruins of the temple of Sais and the
cemetery in Chacuna valley. Important. It proves the system.
Night approaches—Lebewohl.

This last document was enclosed, and afterwards deposited
with the other in one of the banks of France by the party
to whom both were entrusted. A large sum of money
was set aside to defray the expenses of the mysterious
undertaking.

In 1906 Dr. Paul Schliemann, a grandson of the
great discoverer of pre-Hellenic civilization, vowed to
devote his life to the researches referred to in the sealed
envelopes, and made himself acquainted with their con-
tents. A few years later he contributed to certain news-
papers in New York and London a signed statement,’
in which he made a revelation of his grandfather’s last
bequest.

The first paper said:

Whoever opens this must solemnly swear to carry out the work
I have left unfinished. I have come to the conclusion that Atlantis
was not only a great territory between America and the West
Coast of Africa and Europe, but the cradle of all our civilization
as well. There has been much dispute among scientists on this
matter. According to one group the tradition of Atlantis is purely
fictional, founded upon fragmentary accounts of a deluge some
thousands of years before the Christian era. Others declare the
tradition wholly historical, but not capable of absolute proof.

Dr. Schliemann’s papers are of lengthy character.
Briefly stated, they set forth that he found at Troy a

1It appeared in the London Budget (which has since ceased to exist) on 17th
November, 1912,

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bronze vase containing fragments of pottery, images,
and coins of “a peculiar metal”, and “objects made of
fossilized bone”. He added: “Some of these objects
and the bronze vase were engraved with a sentence in
Pheenician hieroglyphics. The sentence read, ‘From
the King Chronos of Atlantis ’.”

Ten years later, when in the Louvre, Paris, he ex-
amined a collection of objects taken from Tiahuanaco, in
Central America, and “discovered pieces of pottery of
exactly the same shape and material, and objects of fos-
silized bone which reproduced line for line those I had
found”, Schliemann wrote, “in the bronze vase of the
‘Treasure of Priam’”. Among these objects was an owl-
headed vase. He also professed to have read, or to have
had read to him, extracts from Egyptian papyri preserved
in the Museum at St. Petersburg which made reference
to the “Land of Atlantis”, whence had come the an-
cestors of the Egyptians “3350 years ago” and the
“sages of Atlantis” who flourished during a period of
“13,900 years”. Another inscription, discovered near
the Lion’s Gate at Mycene, set forth that Thoth was
a son of a “priest of Atlantis” who “landed after many
wanderings in Egypt. He built the first temple at Sais,
and there taught the wisdom of his native land.”

Dr. Paul Schliemann has broken open the “owl-
headed vase” at Paris, referred to in his grandfather’s last
memorandum, and states that he found in it a coin or
medal of “silver-like metal” inscribed in Phoenician as
follows: “Issued in the Temple of Transparent Walls ”.
He claims, also, to have made discoveries in Egypt,
Mexico, and elsewhere which justify his grandfather’s
theory. “1 have reasons”, he has written, “ for saying
that the strange medals were used as money in Atlantis
forty thousand years ago.”

Prot AS trie LOST. ATLANTIS: ror

The first question which arises in connection with
the -late Dr. Schliemann’s theory is: Did the “ Lost
Atlantis” ever have existence in fact? On this point
Professor James Geikie has written as follows:—

“ Geologists have often speculated as to a former connection
between the Old World and the New. ‘There can be little doubt,
indeed, that such a land connection did obtain between Asia and
Europe at a geologically recent date, and it is quite possible that
there may have been a land bridge also between Europe and North
America by way of the Farée Islands.'| Others have suggested
the former existence of a land bridge further south. They suppose
that the North Atlantic may have been dry land—traversed from
west to east by a Mediterranean Sea—of which the existing Medi-
terranean and the Gulf of Mexico are the remaining portions.
But the facts which have suggested that speculation have been
otherwise accounted for. All that is definite and certain is that
there has been considerable loss of land so far as Europe is con-
cerned. Our continent formerly extended further westward.
But I know of no geological evidence that puts it beyond doubt
that the Atlantic basin is the site of a drowned continent. On
the contrary, such evidence as we have leads rather to the belief
that the Atlantic basin, like that of the Pacific, is of primeval
origin.” 2

That veteran geologist, Professor Edward Hull, takes
a aifferent view of the problem, and has written:

“The tradition of Atlantis ‘beyond the Pillars of Hercules’ can
scarcely be supposed to have originated in the mind of man with-
out a basis of reality. In the centre of the North Atlantic Ocean
rise from the surface the Azores volcanic islands, the summits of
a group of islands rising from a platform corresponding to the con-
tinental platform of Europe on one hand and of America on the
other. ‘The rise of the level of the ocean bed, amounting from
7000 to 10,000 feet, as shown by the soundings on the Admiralty

1 See Chapter I.
2 London Budget, 8th December, 1912. See also Geikie’s The Deeps of the Pacific

Ocean and their Origin, The Great Sea Age, Prehistoric Europe, and The Antiquity of Man
in Europe,

102 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

charts, would have reduced the depth of the ocean by so much,
and have extended the land areas to an extent which would have
brought Atlantis within navigable distance of both continents for
early inhabitants using canoes. We know from our investigations*
that this elevation occurred during the post-tertiary period,” and at
a presumed date g000 or 10,000 B.c. If we add 1000 years of
our era, the question arises: Would not this lapse of time have
been sufficient to account for the subsidence which the region in
question underwent in order to restore the land and sea to their
present limits? Of course, this would depend on the rate of sub-
sidence. But, at anyrate, the result, as regards Atlantis, would
have been the submergence under the ocean, with the exception
of its present islands. ‘The glacial period, when much of Europe
and the British Isles was covered by snow and ice, can scarcely
have been farther back than 10,000 years, and this is presumably
the age of Atlantis.”

Dr. Scharff, Director of the Natural History Museum,
Dublin, is also a believer in the “Lost Atlantis”. He
has been led to the conclusion, in his studies of the
migrations of animals between the continents of America
and Europe,® that a land bridge once crossed the Atlantic
Ocean between Southern Europe and the West Indies.
“It probably became disconnected”’, he says, “in Miocene
times. Since then this land once more became united
with our continent, and may not have been finally severed
until the Pleistocene period. United with the West
Indies and Central America in early Tertiary times, it
probably subsided partly during the Oligocene period¢
and later, leaving only a few isolated peaks as islands in
the midst of the vast ocean which has since replaced it.”

It will be seen that scientific opinion is divided re-

1 Professor Hull and Professor J. W. Spencer in Sub-Oceanic Physiography of the
North Atlantic Ocean (London, 1912), and Professor Hull in London Budget, ist
December, 1912.

* During the Pleistocene Age. 3 Distribution and Origin of Life in America.

4 A vast interval—perhaps millions of years—separated the Oligocene period from
eyen the earliest culture stages of Pleistocene times,

Pero AS HE SLOSP ATLANTIS “103

garding the existence of a mid-Atlantic continent. If,
however, the views of Hull and Scharff are accepted, they
cannot be held to prove that Plato’s Atlantis was situated
beyond the “ Pillars of Hercules”. Schliemann’s hypo-
thesis, as expounded by his grandson, renders it necessary
to assume that this lost country, “which used the ancient
medals as an equivalent of labour, had a more advanced
currency system than we have at present”. If such was
the case, it appears strange that no traces of the high civili-
zation have survived on those islands which are referred
to as the “few isolated peaks” of the submerged continent.

The particular race which is supposed to have come
from Atlantis has yet to be identified. Was it represented
in Europe by Chellean man? The Chellean “hand axe”
has been traced from France to South Africa, through
Asia, across the “land bridge” to North America, and
southward through South America. It never reached
Australia or New Zealand. But Chellean man was a
savage, not much more advanced, indeed, than were the
Tasmanians. Cro-Magnon man, on the other hand, had
achieved a high degree of culture, but no traces either of
his physical type or of his cave drawings have been dis-
covered in the New World. Besides, his culture developed
from the Chellean through the Acheulian and Mousterian
stages, as has been fully demonstrated. He cannot there-
fore be claimed for Atlantis. Nor can Mediterranean man,
who had spread through Egypt and along the North African
coast, and had settled in Southern and Western Europe,
as well as in Mesopotamia, before the age of metal. There
are no aboriginal representatives of his type in America.

Have the settlers from Atlantis vanished entirely in
the New and Old Worlds? Did they perish like the
mythical elder races of Mexico, India, Babylonia, Greece,
and Ireland?

‘104 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Another insurmountable difficulty is the fact that
copper was not utilized in Egypt and Central America
at the same early period. The Egyptians and Sumerians
worked that metal at about 3000 B.c. In Crete the
Bronze Age was inaugurated between 3000 B.c, and
2800 B.c., and in Great Britain before 1500 B.c. The
American peoples did not begin to utilize metal until a
considerable period after bronze had been supplanted by
iron in Europe. ‘Most students of American arche-
ology are agreed that the Mexican and Peruvian bronzes
are not of any great antiquity, and that the Bronze Age
must have been over in China long before it began in the
New World.”?

In Dr. Heinrich Schliemann’s day the antiquity of
Central American civilization was greatly exaggerated.
We now know that the Maya did not develop their
culture on the Mexican plateau much before the eighth
century of the Christian era, and that the Aztecs arrived
about 1200 a.p.; the later Mexican confederacy had
flourished for only a century before it was shattered by
Cortez.2 Most of the resemblances which have been
noted between the Egyptian and Central American civili-
zations are of a superficial character.

Plato’s legend regarding the “ Lost Atlantis” was of
Egyptian origin. It is related in the Timeus and Critias.
A certain Solon visited Sais, where he “was very honour-
ably received” by the priests of the goddess Neith. One
of the eldest of these spoke with contempt regarding the
“‘puerile fables” of the Greeks, and said: “ You are un-
acquainted with that most noble and excellent race of men
who once inhabited your country, from whom your whole

' British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age, pp. 110, 111.

* Through Southern Mexico, H. Gadow (1908), and Bureau of American Ethnology,
E, Forstemann, Bull. 28 (1904).

CRETE AS THE LOST ‘ATLANTIS © tos

present state are descended, though only a small remnant
of this admirable people is now remaining”. He went
on to say that, according to Egyptian annals, Athens once
overcame “a prodigious force”, when “a mighty warlike
power, rushing from the Atlantic sea, spread itself with
hostile fury over all Europe and Asia”. The narrative
continues:

“That sea (the Atlantic) was then navigable, and had an island
fronting that mouth which you in your tongue call the Pillars of
Hercules; and this island was larger than Libya and Asia put to-
gether; and there was a passage hence for travellers of that day to
the rest of the islands, as well as from those islands to the whole
opposite continent that surrounds that the real sea. . . . In this
Atlantic island, then, was formed a powerful league of Kings, who
subdued the entire island, together with many others, and parts
also of the Continent; besides which they subjected to their rule
the inland parts of Libya, as far as Egypt, and Europe also, as far
as Tyrrhenia. The whole of this force, then, being collected in
a powerful league, undertook at one blow to enslave both your
country and ours, and all the land besides that lies within the
mouth. ‘This was the period, Solon, when the power of your
state (Athens) was universally celebrated for its virtue and strength;
for surpassing all others in magnanimity and military skill, some-
times taking the lead of the Greek nation, at others left to itself
by the defection of the rest, and brought into the most extreme
danger, it still prevailed, raised the trophy over its assailants, kept
from slavery those not as yet enslaved, insured likewise the most
ample liberty for all of us without exception who dwell within the
Pillars of Hercules.

Subsequently, however, through violent earthquakes and deluges
which brought desolation in a single day and night, the whole of
your warlike race was at once merged under the earth; and the
Atlantic island itself was plunged beneath the sea and entirely dis-
appeared ; whence even now that sea is neither navigable nor to be
traced out, being blocked up by the great depth of mud which the
subsiding island produced.”?

1 The Timeus, Section VI.

1066 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

An anonymous contributor to the Times* was the first
to draw attention to the remarkable resemblance between
Plato’s Atlantis and the island of Crete. His theory that
the Egyptian priest’s legend was based on traditions re-
garding Cretan sea-power and the raids of piratical bands
on the Egyptian coast during the Nineteenth and Twen-
tieth Dynasties has found general favour among prominent
archeologists.

Crete, one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean,
is about 160 miles long, and varies in breadth from about
35 miles in the middle to 10 between Retimo and Sphakia,
and only 6 miles in one place between the Gulf of
Mirabello and the coast of Hierapetra. Deep gulfs indent
its northern coast, and its southern shore is rugged and
rock-bound. A ridge of hills extends from east to west,
culminating about the centre in well-wooded Mount
Psiloriti, the ancient Mount Ida, which rises to a height
of about 8159 feet. Strabo called the hills in the western
part of the island Leuca Oré, or “the white mountains”.
In the south-west the mountains almost fringe the shore.
The ancient capital was situated at Knossos, near Candia,
on the north. In ancient days the island was four days’
sail from Egypt and two from Cyrenaica. It may well be
said of Crete, as of Atlantis, that “there was a passage
hence for travellers of that day to the rest of the islands,
as well as from those islands to the whole opposite
continent”.

In the Critias® Plato says of Atlantis:

“The whole region was said to be exceedingly lofty and pre-
cipitous towards the sea, and the plain about the city (? Knossos),
which encircles it, is itself surrounded by mountains sloping down
to the sea, being level and smooth, all much extended, three
thousand stadia in one direction, and the central part from the

1 yoth February, 1909. * Section XIII.

Phra Pe AS LHe LOST ATLANTIS: 307

sea above two thousand. And this district of the whole island
was turned towards the south, and in an opposite direction from
the north. The mountains around it, too, were at that time
celebrated, as exceeding in number, size, and beauty all those of
the present time, having in them many hamlets enriched with
villages.”

In Atlantis also, as in Crete, the prosperity of the
island kingdom depended on its sea trade. They (the
island kings) were “rulers”, Solon was informed, “in the
sea of islands (? the A‘gean), and, as we before said, yet
further extended their empire to all the country as far as
Egypt and Tyrrhenia”.

During recent years archeologists have discovered
that a great civilization —the earliest in Europe —
flourished in Crete for many long centuries before the
rise of Mycenze and Tiryns. It was already well de-
veloped ere the pyramids near Cairo were erected, and
before the dawn of the Twelfth Dynasty a palace had |
been built at Knossos. Some time during the Eighteenth |
Dynasty, and ere the famous Akhenaton was born, Crete
was overrun by raiders, who displaced the native rulers,
as the Egyptian Pharaohs had been displaced at an earlier
period by the Hyksos. This calamity was sudden and
overwhelming, and must have made a deep impression on
those states which had commercial relations with the
famous island kingdom. Its sea traders had intimate
relations with Egypt for many centuries. Evidence has
been forthcoming that they visited the Delta coast as
early as at least the Old Kingdom period. During the
time of Queen Hatshepsut and Thothmes III they were
depicted on the walls of Theban tombs, and were known
as the Kheftiu and “Princes of the Isles in the midst of
the Great Green Sea”. But no reference was made to
them after the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The

14

(¢ 808)

168 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIG EUROPE

Cretan sea traders vanished entirely, and their place was
taken ultimately by the Phoenicians.

In the Atlantis legend there are several pointed re-
ferences to a civilization closely resembling that of Crete.
We read of busy harbours and far-travelled merchants, of
a king’s palace, like the palace of Knossos, which was
built of stone, and of private and public baths; “ the
king’s baths”’, says Plato, “and those of private persons
were apart”, and there were “ separate baths for women”’.
Crete was famous for its sacrificial bull fights; so was
Atlantis; and it is suggestive to find that on both islands
the method obtained of capturing the animals without the
aid of weapons. Plato says of Atlantis in this connec-
tion: .

“As there were bulls grazing at liberty in the temple of
Poseidon, ten men only of the whole number, after invoking the
god to receive their sacrifice propitiously, went out to hunt sword-
less, with staves and chains, and whichever of the bulls they took,
they brought it to the column and slaughtered it.’’?

Plato’s legend used to be regarded by European
scholars as “wholly mythical”. It would now appear,
however, that it had a genuine historical basis.

Solon visited Egypt over a thousand years after Crete
had been divested of its ancient supremacy as a maritime
power, and the aged priest of Sais evidently repeated to
him traditions regarding it. Whether he was informed,
or concluded from the Egyptian references, that Aviansie
was situated beyond “the Pillars of Hercules” is quite
uncertain, It was “the island farthest west”, and this
“‘would well describe Crete”, Hawes suggests, “to a
home-staying Egyptian of the Theban Empire”.

When Crete was suddenly overwhelmed by invaders

1 The Critias, Section XV.

SMAIA FUAOUd ANV DOVA Tina *SOSSONN WOUd ‘ALILVaLS NI ‘GVaH S.11N4

Shei Ac THE LOSr ATLANTIS: 109

at the height of its power and prosperity, and its sailors '
and traders vanished from the Mediterranean, many wild
rumours must have obtained currency. It need not sur-
prise us to find that some believed the island itself “ was
plunged beneath the sea”, and that in time the age during
which flourished its kings and seafarers and bull-baiters,
“won its way to the mythical”, as Thucydides says in
another connection.

Plato had no idea that Crete was so “old in story”,

and that its ancient inhabitants were the pioneers of civilis——

zation in Europe, although he may have believed, like
Herodotus, that the island was at one time “ wholly
peopled with barbarians” (non-Hellenic folk). He had
even less knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean, otherwise he
could not have believed that navigation beyond the Pillars
of Hercules was hampered by the mud-banks which
marked the site of the “lost Atlantis”.

It is possible that the Egyptian legend was influenced
by the ancient folk-tale, “The Shipwrecked Sailor”. This
hero sojourned on an island which afterwards vanished in
the midst of the sea. Or, perhaps, some Egyptian navi-
gator, who set out on a voyage to Crete, at a period sub-
sequent to the fall of Knossos, went off his course and got
into trouble with sand-banks. On his return home he
may have told as marvellous a story as the “ shipwrecked
sailor”, believing that the island he sought had really
been submerged.

The priest of Sais appears also to have mingled with
his legend of Atlantis information derived from traditions
and records regarding the settlement of Europeans on the
North African coast, and the sea-raids during the reigns
of Meneptah and Rameses IL,° when, as one Egyptian

1 Herod., I, 173- 2 Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 248-251
8 [bids PP» 349 35%

110 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

record sets forth, “the isles were restless, disturbed
among themselves”. Certain tribes from these isles,
who had established themselves in Libya, actually pro-
vided mercenaries for the army and fleet of Rameses III
to drive back the “late comers’’.1_ As Plato says of the
conquerors from Atlantis, they had “subjected to their
rule the inland parts of Libya, as far as Egypt”.

It will thus be seen that Schliemann was not far astray
when he identified Plato’s Atlantis as the cradle of Xgean
civilization. Had he been able, as he desired, to excavate
in Crete, he might have changed his mind regarding the
real significance of the Graeeco-Egyptian myth.

The poets and historians of ancient Greece had pre-
served several suggestive legends regarding Crete. They
had much to say regarding its King Minos, who flourished
before the Trojan war. According to Strabo” he resided
at Knossos, and made just laws which were afterwards
borrowed by the Greeks. Thucydides® states that he
was the first to have a navy, and that he cleared the
Aégean of pirates. The poet of the Odyssey says:

There is a land amid the wine-dark sea

Called Crete; rich, fruitful, girded by the waves;
She boasts unnumbered men and ninety towns... .
One city in extent the rest exceeds,

Knossos; the city in which Minos reigned—

The King who ’gan to reign in his ninth year

And converse held with Zeus.*

Minos was fabled to be the son of Zeus by a human
mother, the beautiful Europé, daughter of Agenor, King
of Phcenicia. The legend sets forth that one day
Europé was bathing with her maids, when Zeus beheld
and fell in love with her. He changed himself into a

1 Between 1200 and 1190 B.c. 2 Strabo, X. 3 Thucydides, J, 4.
* Odyssey, XIX, 170 et seg.

ERE AS TREO LOSP ATLANTIS: ‘121

bull, whose comely form and tameness attracted the atten-
tion of the princess. She advanced towards the animal,
and was so fascinated by it that she mounted on its back.
When she did so, the bull rushed into the water and
swam to Crete. There she became the mother of Zeus’s
three sons, Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon.

This story resembles the Scottish kelpie or “water-
horse” stories. When a human being mounts on the
back of one of these supernatural animals, he or she finds
it impossible to dismount, and is carried away to a dark
loch. Sometimes the “water-horse” makes love in
human form.

Herodotus states that “certain Greeks, who would
probably be Cretans, made a landing at Tyre, on the
Pheenician coast, and bore off the King’s daughter,
Europé.”! He suggested that Europe may have been
so called after the Tyrian princess, and had been name-
less before her time.”

Minos was supposed to have received his code of
laws from his father Zeus, whom he visited in his cave
on Mount Ida while the people were assembled round its
base.2 When he died he became, like the Egyptian
Osiris, a judge in Hades. Ulysses related in the Odyssey,
in the account of his visit to the land of shades:

There saw I Minos, offspring famed of Jove (Zeus) ;
His golden sceptre in his hand, he sat

Judge of the dead; they pleading, each in turn,

His cause, some stood, some sat, filling the house,
Whose spacious folding gates were never closed.*

It was related of Minos—the later king of that name
__that his succession to the Cretan throne was disputed.

1 Herodotus, I, 2. 2 [bid., IV, 45. 3 Strabo, 476.
4 Odyssey, Cowper’s trans., XI, 696-700.

112 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

To emphasize his divine right, he stated that the gods
would grant him anything he desired. Accordingly he
invoked Poseidon, god of the deep, to send him a bull
from the ocean, which he promised to offer up in sacrifice.
When, however, the animal appeared he was so greatly
fascinated by its beauty that he substituted another.
Poseidon was wroth, and caused Minos to be punished
by causing his wife, Pasiphaé, to give birth to a monster,
half bull and half man, called the Minotaur.

It was necessary to build a special residence for the
Minotaur, to whom sacrificial offerings had to be made.
Minos accordingly employed Deedalus,* a skilled Athenian
artificer, on his return from Egypt, to construct a labyrinth
at Knossos, similar to the one situated near Lake Meeris.
When the work was accomplished Minos had Dedalus
confined in the Labyrinth, but he was secretly liberated by
Queen Pasiphaé. Then he procured wings for himself
and his son Icarus. Together they flew over the A‘gean,
but Icarus soared so near the sun that the wax with which
his wings were fastened to his body melted, and he fell
into the Icarian Sea, to which his name was given.
Dedalus alighted without mishap at Cume in Italy,
where he erected a temple to Apollo, to whom he dedi-
cated his wings.”

Icarus thus met a similar fate to Etana, of Babylonian
fame, Nimrod in the Koran legend, and the son of the
eagle giant Garuda, in the Indian epic Ramayana. Etana
and Nimrod ascended on the backs of eagles, whose
pinions were burnt by the sun. The Indian eagle was
similarly punished for its presumption.’

Dedalus afterwards took refuge in Sicani (Sicily),
where Cocalus was king. Minos fitted out a great

1 Thucydides, I, 4. 2 Virgil, Book VI.
8 Babylonian Myth and Legend, pp. 165 et seq.

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CRETE AS THReLOs! ATLANTIS 113

expedition and visited Sicily in pursuit of Dedalus, whom
he desired to put to death. There he was treacherously
murdered by Cocalus or his daughters. A temple erected
to his memory was dedicated to Aphrodite.

Minos had previously decreed that every year Athens
should send to Crete seven youths and seven maidens
to be devoured by the Minotaur.

This punishment was imposed upon the Athenians
because they had jealously murdered Androgeos, son of
Minos and Pasiphaé, who had surpassed all his opponents
at the Panathenaic games.

For two years this tribute of human lives was paid
by the subject city. But at length the hero, Theseus,

vowed his life to sell
For his dear Athens, which he loved so well,
So that funereal ship might sail no more
Freighted with living death to Creta’s shore.

In the third year he sailed with the sons and daughters
of the noblest families in Athens. On his arrival in
Crete he was informed that he must enter the Labyrinth
naked and alone, and there be devoured by the Minotaur.’
He invoked the goddess Aphrodite, who caused a beauti-
ful Cretan maiden to fall in love with him. This was
Ariadne, daughter of Minos. She secretly gave Theseus
a magic sword to slay the Minotaur, and a clue of thread,
with the aid of which the hero could be enabled to extri-
cate himself from the Labyrinth. As he passed along the
winding and intricate passages he unwound the clue. He
slew the Minotaur, and thus delivered Athens from its
tribute. On his return voyage he was accompanied by
Ariadne, whom, however, he deserted at Naxos.

1 Catullus, 64. (Martin’s translation).
2 Classic Myth and Legend, pp. 182 ef seq,

114 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

It is believed that this legend is reminiscent of a
period when Athens was subject to the rule of Crete, and
it had to provide male and female toreadors for the bull-
ring at. Knossos. According to the exponents of the solar
myth theories, Minos was the sun and Pasiphaé the moon,
or the Minotaur was the sun, and the Labyrinth the sky
by night, its windings being the course followed by the
moon.

Hesiod, Homer, Thucydides, and Herodotus make
reference to only one Minos, the son of Zeus, the great
lawgiver. But Diodorus! and Plutarch? tell of a second
Minos, who was the oppressor of the Athenians and the
king who obtained the bull from Poseidon. Certain
archeologists are of opinion that Minos was not a personal
name, but a royal title which was used as is Pharaoh in
the Bible, and that each Cretan ruler may have been a
Minos, as each Egyptian king was an Osiris. Others
hold that Minos became as popular a throne name as
Rameses in Egypt and Cesar at Rome.

It was chiefly because persistent Greek legends gave
recognition to Crete as the source of pre-Hellenic culture
and religion that archzologists desired to excavate on that
island. In the next chapter it will be found that when
opportunity came to test tradition in this regard the
results obtained exceeded the most sanguine expectations.

ATV, 00: 2 Theseus, 20.

CHAPTER VI
The Great Palace of Knossos

Early Discoveries in Crete—How “Tattered Legends” have been “re-
clothed ”—Dramatic Revelations at Knossos—Famous Fresco of the Cup-
bearer—Pre-Hellenic Peoples not Barbarians—The Kheftiu of the Egyptian
Texts—Pheenicians’ Blue Dye came from Crete—Blue Robes of “Lost Atlantis”
People—The Throne and Council Chamber of Minos—How Men were judged
— Plaster Relief of Sacred Bull—Traces of Earlier Palace—A Visit to the
Knossos—“ Wooden Walls” of the Island Kingdom—Official, Religious, and
Domestic Quarters—Frescoes in Queen’s Megaron—Boxing and Dancing in
the “Theatral Area”—Drainage Systems of Crete and Sumeria—Pheacians
of Homer as the Cretans—Glimpses of Palace Life from the Odyssey—Votive
Offerings in Shrines and Caves—How Queen Victoria honoured an Ancient
Custom—Sacred Animals and Symbols—Snake Goddess and Priestess—How
Cretan Ladies were dressed—-Greek and Maltese Crosses—The Star Form of
Isis.

“Tue ancient history of Crete”, it used to be customary
to write, “begins with the heroic or fabulous times.
Historians and poets tell us of a king called Minos, who
lived before the Trojan War. Then comes the well-
known story of the Minotaur, Theseus, and Ariadne.”
The solar symbolists disposed of the various legends as
poetic fictions.

The controversy aroused by the discoveries of Schlie-
mann at Mycene and Tiryns was being waged with
vigour and feeling when a native Cretan excavated at
Knossos a few great jars and fragments of pottery of
Mycenzan character. The spot was afterwards visited by
several archzxologists, including Dr. Schliemann and Dr.

Dorpfeld, and a preliminary investigation brought to
115 ¥

116 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

light undoubted indications that the remains of an ancient
palace, partly built of gypsum, lay beneath the accumu-
lated debris of ages. It was impossible, however, to
make satisfactory arrangements with the local proprietors
or the Turkish Government. The view expressed by
Mr. W. J. Stillman, that the ruins were those of the
famous Labyrinth, did not attract much attention.

In 1883 some peasants in the eastern part of the
island happened upon ancient votive objects in the Dic-
tean cave, which they had been in the habit of utilizing as
a shelter for their goats. These they put on the market,
and as there was a great demand for them, a brisk trade
in Cretan antiquities sprang up. Archzologists were
again drawn to the island, and excavations which did not
produce great results were conducted in front of the cave.
This made the peasants redouble their efforts to supply
a growing demand, and as they met with much success
the archeologists became more and more impressed by
the possibilities of the island as an area for conducting
important research work. In 1894 Sir Arthur Evans and
Mr. Hogarth paid a visit to Crete, and examined both the
site of Knossos and the Dictean cave. ‘The times were
inauspicious for their mission, for the island was seething
with revolt against the Turkish authorities. Sir Arthur,
however, was able to effect the purchase of part of the
Knossos ground, having become convinced that great
discoveries remained to be made. What interested him
most at the time were the indications afforded by mysteri-
ous signs on blocks of gypsum of a system of hitherto
unknown prehistoric writing. It was not, however, until
1900 that he was able to acquire by purchase the entire
site of Knossos and conduct excavations on an extensive
scale.

During the interval, further investigations were con-

TEE GREAT PAEACH OF KNOSSOS 117

ducted by different archeologists at the Dictean cave,
which is double-chambered. Inscribed tablets and other
finds came to light, but all research work had to be
abandoned in 1897, when it was found that the upper
cave was blocked with fallen rock. The political unrest
on the island, besides, made it unsafe for foreigners to
pursue even the peaceful occupation of digging for ancient
pottery and figurines of bronze and lead.

In 1900, however, Sir Arthur Evans operating at
Knossos, and Mr. Hogarth at the Dictean cave, achieved
results which more than fulfilled their most sanguine
hopes. What they accomplished was to reveal traces of
an ancient and high civilization, of which the Mycenzan
appeared to be an offshoot. No such important discovery
had been made since Schliemann, twenty - five years
previously, unearthed the graves he so confidently
believed to be those of Agamemnon and his companions.
* Flere again”, as Mr. Asquith said at the annual meeting
of the subscribers to the British School at Athens,' “ scepti-
cism received an ugly blow. Legends”, he added, “ which
had become somewhat ragged and tattered have been
decently reclothed. The mountain on which Zeus was
supposed to have rested from his labours, and the palace
in which Minos invented the science of jurisprudence, are
being brought out of the region of myth into the domain
of possible reality.”

Sir Arthur Evans went to Crete as a trained and
experienced archeologist, and was assisted from the be-
ginning, in March, 1900, by Dr. Duncan Mackenzie,
who had already distinguished himself by his excavations
on the island of Melos, and Mr. Fyfe, the British School
of Athens architect. A large staff of workers was em-
ployed, and by the time the season’s work was concluded

1 London, 30th October, 1900,

118 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

in June a considerable portion of the Knossos palace was
laid bare.

Among the most remarkable finds were the wall
paintings that decorated the plastered walls of. the palace
corridors and apartments. These did more to arouse
public interest in pre-Hellenic civilization than even the
burnt city of Troy or the gold masks of kings in the
graves at Mycene. Here were wonderful pictures of
ancient life vividly portrayed, of highly civilized Euro-
peans who were contemporaries of the early Biblical
Pharaohs, and lived in splendour and luxury long cen-
turies before Solomon employed the skilled artisans of
Phoenicia to decorate his temple and palace. And what
,manner of people were they? Not rude barbarians
| awaiting the dawn of Hellenic civilization, but men and
\women with refined faces and graceful forras whose cos-
/tumes resembled neither those of the Egyptians, Greeks,
‘nor Romans. There was a note of modernity in this antique
and realistic art and the manners of life it portrayed. The
ladies with their puffed sleeves, narrow waists, and flounced
skirts, might well have sralkeeds not from a Cretan palace,
but some Paris sa/on of the ’eighties and nineties.

In his first popular account of his excavations, Sir
Arthur Evans gave a vivid description of his dramatic
discovery of the fresco named the “cup-bearer”’.

“The colours”, he wrote, “were almost as brilliant as
when laid down over three thousand years before. For
the first time the true portraiture of a man of this mys-
terious Mycenzan race rises before us. There was some-
thing very impressive in this vision of brilliant youth
and of male beauty, recalled after so long an interval to
our upper air from what had been till yesterday a for-
gotten world. Even our untutored Cretan workmen felt
the spell and fascination,

THE CUP-BEARER, KNOSSOS

From a photograph kindly lent by Sir Arthur Evans

“a

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 119

“They, indeed, regarded the discovery of such a
painting in the bosom of the earth as nothing less than
miraculous, and saw in it the ‘icon’ of a saint! The
removal of the fresco required a delicate and laborious
process of under-plastering, which necessitated its being
watched at night, and old Manolis, one of the most
trustworthy of our gang, was told off for the purpose.
Somehow or other he fell asleep, but the wrathful saint
appeared to him in a dream. "Waking with a start, he
was conscious of a mysterious presence; the animals
round began to low and neigh, and there were visions
about; ‘g¢avrafer’, he said, in summing up his experiences
next morning, ‘The whole place spooks!’’’!

This life-sized figure of a youth remains in a wonder-
ful state of preservation from the thighs upwards, and is a
feature of Candia museum. He carries in front a long
pointed vessel, adorned with silver and gold, with “ wine
foam” at the brim, one raised hand grasping the handle
and the other clutching it at the tapering end. His face
is finely depicted in profile, the well-proportioned features
are quite modern, and he is clean-shaved; the forehead
is ample, the eyes dark, and the hair black and curly.
Sir Arthur Evans thinks the skull is of “brachycephalic”
(broad-headed) type; others regard it as “‘mesacephalic”’
(medium). Round the neck is a necklace of silver, and
there is'an ear-ring in the only ear shown, which appears
to be mounted with a blue stone. There is an armlet
on the upper part of the right arm, and a bracelet with
what appears to be a seal round the left wrist, which looks
just like the “wristlet-watch’’ worn at the present day.
The body is well developed, and the waist tightened by
a girdle. He wears a closely-fitting loin-cloth, which is
richly embroidered.

1 Monthly Review, March, 1901, p. 124.

120 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Before the famous figure was reached, the excavators
had laid bare a paved corridor nearly 4 yards wide. The
left wall retained traces of plaster which had been decor-
ated with a continuous fresco of a procession of male and
female dignitaries. None of the faces, however, sur-
vived. It was noted that the figures resembled closely
those of the “Keftiu”’ depicted in Egyptian tombs.

An interesting feature of these and other frescoes was
the evidence they afforded of the use of a blue dye
among the Cretans. Some male figures wore bright-blue
robes, and others white robes bordered with blue. Ap-
parently the Phoenicians were not the first to utilize the
famous dyes which have long been so closely associated
with them. Proofs were subsequently forthcoming to
place this belief beyond doubt. Long before the Pheeni-
cians supplanted the Cretans as sea-traders the islanders
produced bright-blue garments, which were worn, it would
appear, on special ceremonial occasions. It is of interest
to note in this connection that the inhabitants of Plato’s
Atlantis had a similar custom. After the bull was sacri-
ficed, and the sacred cup deposited in the temple of the
gods, and “the fire round the sacrifice had been cooled,
all of them dressed themselves in beautiful dark-blue robes
...and then mutually judged one another as respects any
accusations of transgressing the laws. After the acts of
judgment were over, when day came, they inscribed their
decisions on a golden tablet, and deposited them as
memorials, together with their dresses.” ?

A hoard of inscribed clay tablets was discovered by
Fvans in a bath-shaped terra-cotta receptacle within a
small chamber. These were embedded in charcoal, indi-
cating that they had been placed in a wooden box which
at some period was destroyed by fire.

1 The Critias, Sec. XV

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 121

As the work of excavation made progress, many
remarkable discoveries were made in that first season
which appealed to the imaginations of scientists and
workers alike. The glimpses of life afforded by frag-
mentary frescoes set the ghosts of vanished Cretans
walking once again; the wind rustling through the dis-
interred ruins by night seemed “like light footfalls of
spirits’ passing up and down the stately corridors; the
past “out of her deep heart spoke”. By day

There streamed a sunlight vapour, like the standard
Of some ztherial host;
Whilst from all the coast
Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered
Over the oracular woods and divine sea
Prophesyings which grew articulate.

The prophesyings of the excavators were no vain
dreams; with dramatic swiftness they were revealed
almost as soon as they were conceived. Confidently
search was made for tangible evidence that this palace
had been occupied by the legendary Minos, or one of
the kings who bore that name or title, when his very
council chamber was unearthed, and the most ancient
throne in Europe brought to light.

In the heart of the palace this priceless relic of an
antique civilization had lain buried in debris all through
the ages that saw the coming and going of Homer’s
heroes, the rise and fall of Assyria, the fading beauty
of Babylon, the flickering loveliness of Egypt, Persian
splendour, the glory of Greece and the grandeur of
Rome. The kings that sat in it had long faded into the
region of myth and fancy; it was believed by wise scholars
that they never existed at all. And here was the royal
throne to tell another story!

122 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

The “Throne Room” was situated between the upper
part of the spacious central court of the palace and the
“long gallery” of the western wing. It was entered,
however, from the court alone. Those who sought the
presence of the king had first to pass through a small
ante-room about seven yards square, the rubble walls of
which, the excavators found, had been plastered with clay
and faced with stucco made beautiful by artists who were
skilled draughtsmen and brilliant colourists.

Stone benches were ranged round the walls of the
council chamber, and between two of these on the north
side stood the gypsum throne of the king on a raised
slab. Here sat the Minos surrounded by his high
officers of state. There is seating accommodation for
about twenty on the benches.

The throne, which was found intact, is of graceful
form. It presents an interesting contrast to that on
which the statue of the Egyptian King Kafra of Pyramid
fame is seated. Its back, which is higher and less severe,
has an undulating outline, and resembles somewhat an oak
leaf. The base broadens downward from the seat, which
is hollowed to fit the body comfortably, and the sides are
gracefully carved, the “double moulded arch” in front
resembling “late Gothic” designs.

To this chamber may have been led such a wanderer
as brave Ulysses, who desired to accelerate his return to
his native home. He would have found the grave
Minos enthroned amidst his councillors, who sat “side by
side on polished stones”, and perhaps heard him sveak
like the Pheacian king in the Odyssey:—

Chiefs and Senators! I speak
The dictates of my mind, therefore attend.
This guest, unknown to me, hath, wand’ring found
My palace, either from the East arrived.

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 123

Or from some nation on our western side.
Safe conduct home he asks, and our consent

- Here wishes ratified, whose quick return
Be it our part, as usual, to promote;
For at no time the stranger, from what coast
Soe’er, who hath resorted to our doors,
Hath long complained of his detention here.
Haste—draw ye down into the sacred Deep
A vessel of prime speed, and, from among
The people, fifty and two youths select,
Approved the best; then, lashing fast the oars,
Leave her, that at my palace ye may make
Short feast, for which myself will all provide.
Thus I enjoin the crew, but as for these
Of sceptred rank, I bid them all alike
To my own board, that here we may regale
The stranger nobly, and let none refuse.
Call, too, Demodocus, the bard divine,
‘To share my banquet, whom the gods have blest
With pow’rs of song delectable, unmatch’d
By any, when his genius once is fired.+

Opposite the “high seat” of Minos in the “Throne
Room” was a shallow tank with stone breastwork. Its
use is uncertain. The theory that ambassadors and others
washed here while awaiting the king is not convincing ;
there were bath-rooms elsewhere in the vast palace in which
travel-wearied men could refresh and cleanse themselves.
Perhaps it was simply part of the decorative scheme.
Fish may have been kept here to give a touch of realism
to the scenes painted on the stucco-plastered walls.
Traces survive of a riverside fresco, with reeds and
grasses and budding flowers beside flowing waters, which
must have imparted to the chamber an air of repose. On
either side of the door were two gleaming griffins, crested
with peacock’s plumes, “showing”, says Sir Arthur Evans,

1 Cowper’s Odyssey, VIII, 30-54.
(c 808 ) 12

124 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

“that this Indian fowl was known to the East Mediter-
ranean world long before the days of Solomon”. A
flowery landscape formed a strangely-contrasting back-
ground, with ferns and palm-trees fringing the soft blue
stream.

Before this chamber was swept by the fire which
destroyed the palace, it must have been at once stately
and beautiful. No doubt the benches were strewn with
richly-embroidered rugs and cushions to complete the
brilliant colour scheme of which fragmentary traces
survive. The throne appears to have been richly deco-
rated. “The whole face of the gypsum”, writes Sir
Arthur Evans, “had been coated with a fine white plaster
wash, and this again coloured in various ways. The seat
showed distinct remains of a brilliant red colour. A
minute examination of the back disclosed the fact that
fine lines had been traced on it such as are also visible
on the wall frescoes, a technical device, borrowed from
Egyptian practice, for guiding the artist’s hands. It
would appear, therefore, that the back of the throne had
been once decorated with an elaborate colour design.”?
The paved floor was also, apparently, set in a border of
gypsum covered with plaster and richly adorned.

Another interesting early find was the “ wine cellar ”
of the palace—or rather the “cellars”. In the lengthy
corridors were found intact rows of great jars from which
wine was drawn by the “cup-bearers” for the feast, and
oil was likewise stored. Worthy of special mention is
also the painted plaster relief of a bull which dignified the
wall of one of the chambers. “It is life-sized, or some-
what over”’, its discoverer wrote at the time. ‘The eye
has an extraordinary prominence, its pupil is yellow and
the iris a bright-red, of which narrower bands again

1 The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. VI, p. 38.

supa anyrap aig Sq quay Mjpury ydoasojoyd v wr.g

SOSSONN—AVdH S:ITONY—AXITAU UALSVId CGALNIVd

oL

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 125

appear encircling the white towards the lower circum-
ference of the ball. The horn is of greyish hue. . .
Such as it is, this painted relief is the most magnificent
monument of Mycenzan plastic art that has come down
to our time. The rendering of the bull, for which the
artists of this period showed so great a predilection, is full
of life and spirit. It combines ina high degree naturalism
with grandeur, and it is no exaggeration to say that no
figure of a bull at once so powerful and so true was
produced by later classical art.’’?

The first season’s discoveries made it evident that
the palace had been of great dimensions and splendour.
Nothing was found to indicate that it flourished after the
Mycenzan period. It had evidently been destroyed by
fire in pre-Hellenic times, before the thirteenth century
B.c. Traces were also found of a still earlier palace, below
which were the layers of the Neolithic (Late Stone Age)
period. Regretfully Sir Arthur Evans had to suspend
Operations in June 1900 on such a promising site, owing
to the malarious conditions and distressing dust-clouds
raised by the south wind from Libya. Nine brief weeks,
however, had revealed enough to satisfy even so fortunate
an archeologist as Sir Arthur, who had the luck of
Schliemann combined happily with richer experience and
technical skill. No doubt could any longer remain that a
great pre-Homeric civilization had flourished in Crete, |
and that Minos had been rescued from the fairyland of
the solar symbolists to take his place once again among.
the mighty monarchs of the great days of old.

Were it possible for us, by waving the wand of a
magician, to conjure before our eyes this wonderful palace,
as it existed when Queen Hatshepsut reigned over Egypt
and Thothmes III was fretting to seize the reins of

1 Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. VI, pp. 51-3.

126 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

power, we should be first of all impressed by the moder-
nity of its aspect.

We are guided from the sea-shore, like the hero of
the Odyssey, who visited the dwelling of Alcinous, the
Pheacian king, by a goddess in human guise. At a
favourable point of vantage on the poplar-fringed high-
way, we are afforded the first glimpse of the palace of
Knossos. It is situated beside a river? on a low hill in
the midst of a fertile valley, about 34 miles from Candia.
The dominating feature of the landscape is sacred Mount
Juktas, with its notched peak. It seems as if the “ ham-
mer god” had intended to shape the mountain like an
Egyptian pyramid, and, having finished one side, abandoned
the task soon after beginning to splinter out the other.

The palace, which is approached by paved roadways,
has a flat roof and forms a rough square, each side being
about 130 yards long. No walls surround it. Crete,
like “old England”, is protected by its navy—its “wooden
walls”. ‘The Minos kings have suppressed the island
pirates who were wont to fall upon unprotected towns
and plunder them, and hold command of the sea.?

We enter the palace by the north gate, passing groups
of soldiers on sentry duty. A comparatively small force
could defend the narrow way between the massive walls
which lead us to the great Central Court. Note these
little towers and guard-houses, from which they could
discharge their arrows against raiders. There are dark
dungeons beneath us, over 20 feet deep, in which prisoners
are fretting their lives away, thinking of “ Fatherland, of
child, and wife, and slave”, and “the wandering fields of
barren foam” on which they had ventured to defy the
might of Minos.

« The river used to flow nearer the palace site than it does at present.
® Thucydides, I, 2-4.

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 127

The Central Court in the middle of the palace is over
60 yards long and about 30 yards wide. On the eastern
side are the private apartments of the royal family, but
these are not entered from the Court, but along mazy
corridors which are elsewhere approached. The first door
on the western side leads us through an ante-room to the
Throne Room. Farther down, and near the centre of
the Court, is the shrine of the Snake goddess. Behind
it are the west and east Pillar Rooms and the room con-
taining temple repositories; these apartments appear to
have a religious significance. Farther south is the large
“Court of the Altar”. We pass out of the Court at the
northern end, and penetrate the western wing of the palace.
We find it is divided about the middle by the “ Long
Gallery”. Walking southward, we pass, on the right,
numerous store rooms, until we reach an entrance leading
to the sacred apartments behind the shrine of the Snake
goddess. It has already dawned upon us that we are in a
labyrinthine building, if not the real Labyrinth with its
intricate and tortuous passages through which the famous
Theseus was able to wander freely and extricate himself
from with the aid of the clue given to him by the princess
‘Ariadne. One apartment leads to another, and when our
progress is arrested by blind alleys we turn back and find
it difficult, without the help of a guide, to return to the
Long' Gallery that opens on the zigzag route back to the
Central Court. The eastern wing is similarly of mazy
character. In the southern part of it are reception rooms,
living-rooms, bedrooms, and bath-rooms. These include
the “Hall of the Colonnades”’, the “ Hall of the Double
Axes”’, the “ Queen’s Megaron”, and the “ Room of the
Plaster Couch”! Stairways lead to the upper stories.

The rooms assigned to the ladies are approached

1 These and other names were given to the apartments by Sir Arthur Evans,

128 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

through a dark “dog’s-leg corridor”. We enter the
“ Queen’s Megaron” and are silenced by its wonderful
beauty. The paved floor is overlaid with embroidered
rugs, and has a richly-coloured “surround” of painted
plaster. Frescoes adorn the walls. Here is a woodland
scene with a brilliantly-plumaged bird in flight. On the
north side is the whirling figure of a bright-eyed dancing
girl, her long hair floating out on either side in rippling
bird-wing curves, her arms responding to the rise and fall
of the music. She leans slightly forward, poised on one
foot. She wears a yellow jacket with short arms, with a
zigzag border of red and blue. Other dancers are tripping
near her. Beyond these are the musicians... We are
reminded of one of the scenes on the famous shield of

Achilles :—

There, too, the skilful artist’s hand had wrought,
With curious workmanship, a mazy dance,

Like that which Daedalus in Knossus erst

At fair-hair’d* Ariadne’s bidding framed.

There, laying on each other’s wrist their hand,
Bright youths and many suitor’d maidens danced:
In fair white linen these; in tunics those

Well woven, shining soft with fragrant oils . . .
Now whirl’d they round with nimble practised feet,
Easy, as when a potter, seated, turns

A wheel, new fashioned by his skilful hand,

And spins it round, to prove if true it run:

Now featly mov’d in well-beseeming ranks.

A numerous crowd, around, the lovely dance
Survey’d, delighted.®

Another fresco is a picturesque study of sub-marine
life. Fish dart to and fro above the ocean floor about

1 Only one dancing figure has survived of this fresco.
? Or “Ariadne of the lovely tresses”,
* Iiad, XVIII, 590 e1 seg. (Derby’s translation).

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 129

two great snouted dolphins, the air bubbles darting from
their fins and tails to indicate that they are in motion."

In the Queen’s Megaron the Cretan ladies are wont
to chatter over their needlework during the heat of the
day. They admire the works of art on the walls, and
discuss the merits of the various draughtsmen who reside
elsewhere in the palace. Note how little furniture they
require. They won’t have anything that is not absolutely
necessary in their rooms, and what they have is beautiful.
The charm of wide spaces appeals to them. A broad
fresco must not be interrupted by ornaments that might
distract attention from such a masterpiece. It is sufficient
in itself to fill a large part of the room.

Visitors who arrive dusty and weary are conducted
to the bath-room, which is entered through a door at the
north-west corner. Its walls are plainly painted, but
relieved from the commonplace by a broad dado of
flowing spirals with rosette centres. Portable tubs are
provided, and attendants spray water over those who use
them.

We pass from this, the south-eastern, to the north-
eastern wing, and find it is occupied by artistic craftsmen
who are continually employed in beautifying the palace.
Art is under royal patronage. Here, too, are the rooms
of musicians. Farther on are the butlers; these provide
the stores for the cooks, who occupy the domestic quarters
south of the Queen’s Megaron and beneath it.

Once again the guards permit us to walk along the
corridor of the north entrance, and we turn from their
guard-houses and sentinel-boxes to visit the “ Theatral
Area” at the north-western corner of the palace. On

1 These dolphins resemble closely the so-called “swimming elephants” on Scottish
sculptured stones. Like the doves they had evidently a religious significance. Pausanias
tells of a Demeter which held in one hand a dolphin and in another a dove,

130 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

two sides are tiers of stone steps on which spectators seat
themselves. One is the royal “grand stand”, and it has
accommodation for about 200 people; the other is reserved
for young people. The crowds stand round about in a
circle behind the wooden barriers. Sometimes the attrac-
tion is an athletic display. Boxers and wrestlers are
popular. Here, too, the dancers display their skill when
the king calls upon them to “tread the circus with
harmonious steps”. Their dances have a religious
significance.

Turning southward from the Theatral Area we walk
along the broad west court outside the palace. It is
paved and terraced. Almost the whole of this outer
portion of the western wing is occupied by stores, and
the court is the market-place. Here come the traders
who sell their fruit and vegetables and wares; and here
too those who pay their taxes in kind. Officials and
merchants pass to and fro; here is a great consignment of
goods from Egypt which is being unpacked. The scribes
are busy checking invoices, and issuing orders for its dis-
posal. A group of young people gather round a sailor,
who is accompanied by a native Egyptian, and fills their
ears with wonderful stories regarding the river Nile and
the great cities on its banks.

Our steps are directed to the southern side of the
palace. Here is the door leading to the “Court of the
Altar” and other sacred rooms. Farther on is the
“Court of the Sanctuary” in the southern part of the
east wing. Workmen are busy near us extending the
palace beyond the royal apartments.

We have now taken a rapid survey of the great square
palace of Knossos. There are many details, however, that
have escaped our notice. The Cretans were not only
great builders, but also experienced sanitary engineers,

SOSSONN JO FOVIVd AHL AO SNIVNGAY GALVAVOXE AHL JO aSdWITO V

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 131

An excellent drainage system was one of the remarkable
features of the palace. Terra-cotta drain-pipes, which
might have been made yesterday, connect water-flushed
closets “Sof almost modern type”, and bath-rooms with a
great square drain which workmen could enter to effect
repairs through “ manholes”. Rain water was introduced
into the palace, and its flow automatically controlled.

Crete, however, was not alone in anticipating modern
sanitary methods. Long before the Late Minoan period,
which began about 1700 B.c., the Sumero-Babylonians
had a drainage system. Drains and culverts have been
excavated at Nippur in stratum which dates before the
reign of Sargon I (c. 2650 B.c.), as well as at Surghul,
near Lagash, Fara, the site of Shuruppak, and elsewhere.
It is uncertain, however, whether the Cretans derived their
elaborate drainage system from Sumeria. What remains
clear, however, is that on the island kingdom, and in
cities of the Tigro-Euphratean valley, the problem of
how to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases had
been dealt with on scientific lines.

A glimpse of such a palace as that of Knossos, if not
of this palace itself, is obtained in the Odyssey, and in that
part from which quotation has been made in dealing with
the “ Throne Room”.

Ulysses (Odysseus), the wanderer, is cast ashore on
the island of Scheria, the seat of the Phzacians, “who of
old, upon a time, dwelt in spacious Hypereia”. Dr.
Drerup! and Professor Burrows? have independently
arrived at the conclusion that Scheria is Crete, Hypereia
being Sicily, “and that the origin of the Odyssey is to be
sought for in Crete”. Burrows adds: “It can be at once
granted that attention has been unduly concentrated on
Ithaca, Leukias, and Corcyra, while the numerous refer-

1 Homer (1903), pp. 130 ef seq. 2 The Discoveries in Crete (1907), pp. 207 et seq.

132. CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

ences in the Odyssey! to the topography of Crete have
been neglected”. Dr. Drerup draws attention to a most
suggestive passage in the seventh book, in which the
secret is “let out”. The Pheacian King, Alcinous,
promises that his seamen will convey the shipwrecked
stranger to his home, “even though it be much farther
than Euboea, which”, he explains, “certain of our men
say is the Father of se ae they who saw it, when they
carried Rhadamanthus of the fair hair, to noes Tityos, son
of Gaia”’.? Now Rhadamanthus was the brother of the
Cretan King Minos. ‘What was he doing in Corcyra?”
asks Professor Burrows. ‘The Pheacians,” adds the
same writer, “themselves mariners, artists, feasters, dancers,
are surely the Minoans of Crete.”

Ulysses (Odysseus) is found on the sea-coast by the
princess Nausicaa. She provides him with clothing and
food, and says—

Up stranger! seek the city. I will lead
Thy steps towards my royal father’s house
Where all Phzacia’s nobles thou shalt see.

Her proposal is to lead him to her father’s farm, where
he will gaze on the safe harbour in which

Our gallant barks
Line all the road, each stationed in her place,
And where, adjoining close the splendid fane
Of Neptune,? stands the forum with huge stones
From quarries hither drawn, constructed strong,
In which the rigging of their barks they keep
Sail cloth and cordage, and make smooth their oars.

She intends to leave him at this point, fearing that the
sailors might ask, “Who is this that goes with Nausicaa?”

1 JIT, 291-300; XIX, 172-9, 188-9, 200, 338.
? Butcher and Lang’s Odyssey, p. 113. 3 Poseidon in the original,

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 133

and cast imputations on her character. Apparently the
gossips were as troublesome in those times as in our own.
She adds naively:

; I should blame
A virgin guilty of such conduct much,
Myself, who reckless of her parent’s will
Should so familiar with a man consort,
Ere celebration of her spousal rites.

The princess then advises the wanderer to make his
way from the royal home farm to the palace:—

Ask where Alcinous dwells, my valiant sire.
Well known is his abode, so that with ease
A child might lead thee to it.

When he is received within the court he should at once
seek the queen, her mother.
She beside a column sits
In the hearth’s blaze, twirling her fleecy threads
Tinged with sea purple, bright, magnificent !
With all her maidens orderly behind.

If he makes direct appeal to this royal lady he will be sure
to “win a glad return to his island home”.

The wanderer is much impressed by the gorgeous
palace of the Phzacian king, towards which he is led by
the grey-eyed goddess Athene, who assumed the guise of
a girl carrying a pitcher. He pauses on the threshold,
gazing with wonder on the inner walls covered with brass
and surrounded by a blue dado. Doors are of gold and
the door-posts of silver. He has a glimpse of a feasting
chamber; the seats against the wall are covered with
mantles of “subtlest warp”, the “work of many a female
hand”. There the Phzacians are wont to sit eating and
drinking in the flare of the torches held in the hands of
golden figures of young men,

134 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Fifty handmaidens attend on the King and Queen.
Some’ grind the golden corn in millstones. Others sit
spinning and weaving with fingers

Restless as leaves
Of lofty poplars fluttering in the breeze.

So closely do they weave linen that oil will fall off it.
Just as the Pheacian men are skilled beyond others as
mariners, so are the women the most accomplished at the
loom. The goddess Athene has given them much wisdom
as workers, and richest fancy.

Outside the courtyard of the palace is a large garden
surrounded by a hedge. There grows many a luxuriant
and lofty tree.

Pomegranate, pear, the apple blushing bright,
The honied fig, and unctuous olive smooth.
Those fruits, nor winter’s cold nor summer’s heat
Fear ever, fail not, wither not, but hang
Perennial...
Pears after pears to full dimensions swell,
Figs follow figs, grapes clust’ring grow again, _
Where clusters grew, and (every apple stript)
The boughs soon tempt the gath’rer as before.
There too, well-rooted, and of fruit profuse,
His vineyard grows...

On the garden’s verge extreme
Flow’rs of all hues smile all the year, arranged
With neatest art judicious, and amid
The lovely scene two fountains welling forth,
One visits, into every part diffus’d
The garden ground, the other soft beneath
The threshold steals into the palace court,
Whence ev’ry citizen his vase supplies.

The wanderer, having gazed with wonder about him,
enters the palace. He sees men pouring out wine to
keen-eyed Hermes, the slayer of Argos, before retiring

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 135

for the night. Athene again comes to his aid, and wraps
him ina mist so that he passes, unseen by anyone, until
he reaches the queen. He tells her of his plight, and asks
for safe conduct to his native land, and the great lady
takes pity on him. The wanderer is given food and
wine. Before he retires to rest he relates to King Alcinous
how he was cast on the island shore and conducted to the
farm by the princess. Recognizing that the girl has com-
promised herself, his majesty offers her in marriage to the
Stranger, promising

House would I give thee and possessions too
Were such thy choice.

He adds, however, that if he prefers to return home no
man in Pheacia “shall by force detain thee”. The
wanderer’s decision is, “Grant to me to visit my native
shores again”. So the matter ends. Odysseus is con-

ducted to
a fleecy couch
Under the portico, with purple rugs
Resplendent, and with arras spread beneath
And over all with cloaks of shaggy pile.

The king and queen retire to an “inner chamber”.

Next morning the king and his counsellors assemble
as indicated in the description of the Throne Room of
Knossos palace, and arrangements are completed to give
Odysseus a safe conduct home. Before he goes a feast
is held, at which “the beloved minstrel”, Demodocus,
sings of the Trojan war. Then a visit is paid to the
“ Theatral Area”, where athletes display feats of strength.
A young man challenges the stranger boastfully. Roused
to wrath by his speech, Odysseus says:

I am not, as thou sayest,
A novice in these sports but took the lead

136 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

In all, while youth and strength were on my side.
But I am now in bands of sorrow held,

And of misfortune, having much endured

In war, and buffeting the boist’rous waves.

He, however, flung a quoit and broke all records. Then
he challenged the young man who taunted him

To box, to wrestle with me, or torun...
There is no game athletic in the use
Of all mankind, too difficult for me.

The challenge is not accepted, however. Then the king
says:
We boast not much the boxer’s skill, nor yet
The wrestler’s; but light-footed in the race
Are we, and navigators well informed.
Our pleasures are the feast, the harp, the dance;
Garments for change, the tepid bath, the bed.
Come, ye Phzacians, beyond others skilled
To tread the circus with harmonious steps,
Come play before us; that our guest arrived
In his own country, may inform his friends
How far in seamanship we all excel,
In running, in the dance, and in the song.?

In these passages we probably have, as some authorities
think, real Cretan memories. It is uncertain whether or
not actual Cretan poems were utilized in the Odyssey.
Professor Burrows suggests that the glories of the palace
of Alcinous “were sung by men who had heard of them
as living realities, even if they had not themselves seen
them; men who had walked the palaces (Knossos and
Phestos) perhaps, if not as their masters, at least as
mercenaries or freebooters”’.?

It will be noted that Alcinous says the Phzacians do

1 Extracts from the Odyssey, Books VII and VIII (Cowper's translation).
2 The Discoveries in Crete, p. 209.

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 137

not boast much of the skill of their boxers. Yet the
Cretan pugilists are found depicted in seal impressions,
on vases, &c., suggesting that they were regarded with
pride as peerless exponents of the “manly sport”. It
may be, however, that in the last period (Late Minoan
III) the island boxers were surpassed by those among the
more muscular northerners, who were settled in Crete in
increasing numbers. ‘Late Minoan III”, writes Professor
Burrows, “is a long period, and marks the successive
stages of a gradually decaying culture.” The “Cretan
memories”’ in the Homeric poems “ refer to Late Minoan
Ill”. Apparently the islanders were still famous as
skilled mariners, while their dancing was much admired;
but as athletes and warriors they had to acknowledge the
superiority of the less cultured invaders who had descended
on their shores.

Reference has been made to the sacred rooms in the
great palace of Knossos. Unlike the Egyptians, the
Cretans erected no temples. Their religious ceremonies
were conducted in their homes, on their fields, and beside
sacred mountain caves. Sir Arthur Evans discovered in
the south-eastern part of the palace, near the ladies’ rooms,
a little shrine which could not have accommodated more
than a few persons.

Another shrine was entered from the Central Court
to the south of the Throne Room in the western wing.
It would appear that this part of the palace was invested
with special sanctity. In one of the apartments were
found superficial cists in the pavement. The first two
had been rifled. Then an undisturbed one was located
and opened. It contained a large number of what ap-
peared to be deposits of religious character—vessels con-
taining burnt corn which had been offered to a deity or

1 The Discoveries in Crete, pp. 209-10,

138 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

to deities, tablets, libation tables, and so on. Fragments
of faience (native porcelain) had figures of goddesses, cows
and calves, goats and kids, and floral and other designs.
A number of cockles and other sea-shells artificially tinted
in various colours also came to light. Apparently these
cists answered the same purpose as sacred caves in which
religious offerings were placed.

This custom of effecting a ceremonial connection with
a holy place still survives in our own country. Portions
of clothing are attached to trees overhanging wishing and
curative wells, and coins and pins are also dropped into
them. “Pin wells”, sometimes called “ Penny wells”,
are not uncommon. In some cases nails are driven into
the tree. Special mention may be made of the well and
tree of Isle Maree, on Loch Maree, in the Scottish county
of Ross and Cromarty. It was visited on a Sunday in
September, 1877, by the late Queen Victoria. Her
Majesty read a short sermon to her gillies, and after-
wards, with a smile, attached an offering to the wishing
tree. Such offerings are never removed, for it is believed
that a terrible misfortune would befall the individual who
committed such an act of desecration. In ancient Egypt
offerings were made at tombs, and in Babylonia votive
figures of deities mounted on nails were driven into
sacred shrines.

Seal impressions, which have been found in the Cretan
palace cists, are of special interest. Among the designs
were figures of owls, doves, ducks, goats, dogs, lions
seizing prey, horned sheep, gods and goddesses. Flowers,
sea-shells, houses, &c., were also depicted. One clay
impression of a boxer suggests that it was deposited by
the pugilist himself to ensure his good luck at a great
competition in the Theatral Area. The shells suggest -
that sailors desired protection. One seal of undoubted

‘029 ‘sBuLIayoO SUIpjoY 10j paaoyjoy sauojs ‘s8nf uoneqy ‘syjays *,,ssor9 Ysiez,, ‘ssoysorid pue ssappo3 10 ‘sessappos ayxxug

SNVAHY YNHLUV AIS AY GCHAOLSAA *ANIYHS NVLAYAO V

y

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 139

maritime significance shows a man in a boat attacking a
dog-headed sea-monster. The floral seals were probably
offerings to the earth mother in Spring. No doubt the
cow suckling its calf and the goat its kid were fertility
symbols.

The faience relief of the wild goat and its young is
one of the triumphs of Cretan art. It is of pale-green
colour, with dark sepia markings. The animals are as
lifelike as those depicted in the Paleolithic cave-drawings.
One of the kids is sucking in crouched posture, and the
other bleats impatiently in front. The nimble-footed
mother has passed with erect head and widely-opened
eyes. She is the watchful protector and constant nourisher
of her young—a symbol of maternity. The cow and cali’
is also a fine composition. Commenting on these, Sit
Arthur Evans says that “in beauty of modelling and in
living interest, Egyptian, Phoenician, and, it must be added,
classical Greek . . . are far surpassed by the Minoan
artist”.

Among the marine subjects in faience is one showing
two flying fish (the “sea swallows” of the modern Greeks)
swimming between rocks and over sea-shells lying on the
sand.

Nothing, however, among these votive deposits can
surpass in living interest the faience figures of the Snake
goddess and her priestess. The former is a semi-anthro-
pomorphic figure with the ears of a cow or some other
animal. The exaggerated ear suggests “ Broad Ear”, one
of the members of the family of the Sumerian sea-god Ea.
She may have been thus depicted to remind her wor-
shippers that she was ever ready to hear their petitions.
On the other hand, it is not improbable that she had at
one time the head of a cow or sow. Demeter at Phigalia

was horse-headed, and there were serpents in her hair.
(c 808) 13

140 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

This goddess of Crete has a high head-dress of spiral
pattern, round which a serpent has enfolded itself, and
apparently its head, which is missing, protruded in front
like the ureus on the Egyptian “helmets” of royalty.
Another snake is grasped by the head in her right hand
and by the tail in the left, and its body lies wriggling
along her outstretched arms, and over her shoulders,
forming a loop behind, which narrows at her waist and
widens out below it. Other two snakes are twined round
her hips below the waist. These reptiles are of green
colour with purple-brown spots. Evidently they are
symbols of fertility and growth of vegetation. The god-
dess is attired in a bell-shaped skirt suspended from her
“‘wasp waist”, and a short-sleeved, tight-fitting jacket
bodice, with short sleeves, open in front to display her
ample breasts. Her skin is white, her eyes dark: she
wears a necklace round her neck, and her hair falls down
behind but only to her shoulders, being gathered up in a
fringed arrangement at the back of the head.

The priestess, or votary, has her arms lifted in the
Egyptian attitude of adoration. In each hand she grasps
a small wriggling snake. A stiff girdle entwines her
narrow waist. Unfortunately the head is missing. The
jacket bodice is similar to that of the goddess, and the
breasts are_also ample and bare. ‘The skirt”, writes
Lady Evans, “consists of seven flounces fastened ap-
parently on a ‘foundation’, so that the hem of each flounce
falls just over the head of the one below it.... Over
this skirt is worn a double apron or ‘ polonaise’ similar
to that of the goddess, but not falling so deeply, and not
so richly ornamented. The main surface is covered with
a reticulated pattern, each reticulation being filled with
horizontal lines in its upper half. The general effect is
that of a check or small plaid. . . . The whole costume

THE GREAT PALACE OF KNOSSOS 141

of both figures seems to consist of garments carefully
sewn and fitted to the shape without any trace of flowing
draperies.

Among the symbols, which had evidently a religious
significance, are the “horns of consecration”, the sacred
pillars and trees, the double axe, the “swastika” (crux
gammata), a square cross with staff handles, and the plain
equal-limbed cross. These are represented on seals, in
faience, and on stones. Sir Arthur Evans suggests that a
small marble cross he discovered—he calls it a “fetish cross”
—occupied a central position in the Cretan shrine of the

) mother goddess. “A cross of orthodox Greek shape”, he
says, “was not only a religious symbol of Minoan cult,
- but seems to be traceable in later offshoots of the Minoan
religion from Gaza to Eryx”. He adds: “It must, more-
jover, be borne in mind that the equal-limbed eastern cross
retains the symbolic form of the primitive star sign, as we
see it attached to the service of the Minoan divinities. . . .
The cross as a symbol or amulet was also known among
‘the Babylonians and Assyrians. It appears on cylinders
(according to Professor Sayce, of the Kassite period),
apparently as a sign of divinity. As an amulet on As-
syrian necklaces it is seen associated, as on the Palaikastro
(Crete) mould, with a rayed (solar) and a semi-lunar
emblem—in other words it once more represents a star.”
The Maltese cross first appears on Elamite pottery of the
Neolithic Age: it was introduced into Babylonia at a later
period. In Egypt it figures prominently in the famous
floret coronet of a Middle Kingdom princess which was
found at Dashur, and is believed by some authorities to
be of Hittite origin.

If the Cretan cross was an astral symbol, it would

appear that the snake or dove goddess was associated, like
1 The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. IX, pp. 74. et seq.

142 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

the Egyptian Isis and the Babylonian Ishtar, with Sirius
or some other star which was connected with the food
supply. The rising of Sirius in Egypt coincides with the
beginning of the Nile flood. It appears on the “night of
the drop”. The star form of the bereaved Isis lets fall
the first tear for Osiris, and as the body moisture of deities
has fertilizing and creative properties, it causes the river
to increase in volume so that the land may be rendered
capable of bearing abundant crops. Osiris springs up in
season as the rejuvenated corn spirit.

Other sites in Crete will be dealt with in the chapters
which follow. But before dealing with these in detail,
it will be of interest to glean evidence from the general
finds regarding the early stages of civilization on the
island and the first peoples who settled there, and also
to compare the beliefs that obtained among the various
peoples of the ancient race who, having adopted the
agricultural mode of life, laid the foundations of great
civilizations, among which that of Crete was so brilliant
an example.

CHAPTER VII
Races and Myths of Neolithic Crete

The Cave-dwellers of Crete—Azilian Stage of Culture—The Neolithic
Folk—Obsidian obtained from Melos—Neolithic Finds at Knossos and Phzestos
—Island inhabited at 10,000 B.c.-—Settlers of the Mediterranean Race—The
Evidence of Early Egyptian Graves— Migrations from North Africa into
Europe—Appearance of Anatolians in Crete—The Agriculturists and Bearded
Pastoralists—Racial Religious Beliefs in Scotland and Greece—The Various
Cults of Zeus—Political Significance of Zeus Worship—Legend of the Cretan
Zeus—The Tomb of the God—Traditional Holy Places appropriated by Early
Christians—Cretan Zeus like Osiris, Adonis, Tammuz, Attis, and other Young
Gods—Kings as Incarnations of Deities—Egyptian and Greek Mysticism—
Demeter and Dionysus—T otemic Animals Tabooed—Pig Sacred in Egypt and
Crete—The Sacred Goat—Bull Cult of Knossos—Links between Libya and
Crete—The Double-axe Symbol—Maltese Story of “Axe Land”—Etymology
and Labyrinth—Neolithic Houses in Crete—Survival of Palzolithic Traditions
and Customs and Types—Religious Borrowing.

Wuo were the earliest inhabitants of Crete and whence
came they? The problem is involved in obscurity, but
certain suggestive facts may be stated which throw some
light upon it. As already indicated (Chapter HI) no
bones of Palzolithic man have been discovered on the
island. Signor Taramelli, an Italian excavator, recently
explored, however, the interesting grotto of Miamu, which
was inhabited by early settlers who appear to have been
either in the Late Magdelenian or the Azilian stage of
culture. The deposit of the partly artificial cave yielded
on examination a number of bone heads of weapons and

bone spatulas, somewhat like the “spoon-shaped celts”
143

144 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

of the Swiss lake-dwellings and the Rhone valley, which
were probably utilized by huntsmen for scooping out
marrow from the bones of roasted animals. Evidently,
therefore, Crete had been occupied at a remote period by
cave-dwellers. The lower grotto deposit was overlaid by
Bronze Age remains.

During the long interval which followed the last glacial
epoch, there was a gradual and general subsidence of land
round the Mediterranean as elsewhere. But after Crete
had become detached from Greece, it still remained for a
period of uncertain duration connected with Asia Minor,
where there were, no doubt, communities of cave-dwellers
as in Phoenicia and Palestine. These ancient folks of the
Cretan grotto of Miamu may have been isolated from
their congeners on the mainland like the “‘ beachcombers”’
of the “kitchen middens” in England and Scotland. We
cannot say whether they became extinct or not. It is
possible that the seafaring pioneers of the Neolithic Age
found inhabitants on the island.

The earliest traces of the Neolithic folk have been dis-
covered in the vicinity of the mountain village of Magasa.
Among the relics were polished stone axes, numerous
bone awls, and fragments of coarse pottery belonging to
a similar stage of culture to that which obtained among
the Neolithic cave-dwellers of Gezer, Palestine, who, as
has been indicated, made pottery also. Apparently the
Magasa settlers came from the north in their many-oared
galleys, resembling those depicted on the painted pre-
Dynastic pottery of Egypt. As much is indicated by the
finds of obsidian flakes. Neolithic man, it may be ex-
plained, not only constructed knives, saws, arrow-heads,
and other small implements from flint found in chalk
deposits, and chert nodules embedded in limestone, but
also from obsidian, which is the “glassy” variety of

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE 145

volcanic rock—hardened lava—known as liparite,' the
“frothy” variety being “ pumice-stone”. Now, there
is no obsidian in Crete. The only source of it in the
f~gean is the Island of Melos (now Milos, or Milo),
where the famous statue of Venus de Milo was dis-
covered. Evidently an early Neolithic civilization had
local development in the Cyclades, amidst
the sprinkled isles,
Lily on lily, that o’erlace the sea,
And laugh their pride when the light wave lisps “Greece”?

Obsidian artifacts have been found in various islands
of the A®gean, as well as on the mainland at Mycene
and elsewhere, on the island of Cyprus, and as far west-
ward as Malta, where it was imported, apparently from
Melos, to be worked, for flakes as well as knives have
been found, and also in Sicily. Schliemann discovered
knives and flakes of obsidian in “the four lowest pre-
historic cities at Hissarlik”. He remarked regarding
them at the time: “All are two-edged, and some are so
sharp that one might shave with them”.® The Jews still
use flint and obsidian knives in religious ceremonies.
Obsidian implements have also been taken from Neolithic
strata near Nineveh. In Egypt, during the Old Kingdom
Period, the beaten-copper statues of Pepi I and his son
were given eyes of obsidian.

When Knossos and Phestos were first selected as
settlements, the Cretans had advanced into the later stage
of Neolithic culture. Their obsidian knives were finely
wrought, and have been found associated with serpentine
maces, axes of diorite and other hard stone, and, as it is
of special interest to note, clay and stone spindle whorls,
indicating that the art of spinning was well known.

1§o called after the semi-crystalline rock emitted as lava from the chief volcano of
the Lipari Islands. 2 Browning’s “Cleon”’. 3 [ljos, p. 24.7.

146 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

It has been stated that the beginning of the Neolithic
Age has been dated approximately 10,000 .c. The cal-
culation has been arrived at. by the comparative study of
the stratified deposit at Knossos. The layers of the his-
toric period are about 18 feet deep. Below these are the
Neolithic layers, through which a depth of about 20 feet
has been reached. Roughly about 3 feet was accumulated
every thousand years. Allowing for variation in the
deposits, the minimum date 10,000 B.c. appears to be
safe; even 12,000 B.C. or 13,000 B.c. is possible. There
is no trace in the first layer of a culture so low as that
of Magasa. The earliest “ folk-wave” which reached
Knossos came with a form of culture which had been
developed elsewhere.

- Unfortunately no human remains have been unearthed
in the Neolithic deposit to afford evidence regarding the
racial affinities of these pioneers of civilization. Ethnolo-
gists are of opinion that they were representations of the
Mediterranean race, and arrive at their conclusion on the
following grounds: The large majority of the skulls found
in Bronze Age graves are long, and are similar to those
taken from Neolithic graves in Greece and elsewhere
throughout Europe, especially in the south and west, as
well as those from the pre-Dynastic graves of Egypt.
The average stature of the Minoan Cretans was about
5 feet 4 inches. In the early Bronze Age there was a
broad-headed minority.

It has been found that, as Dr. Collignon says,
“‘when a race is well seated in a region, fixed to the
soil by agriculture, acclimatized by natural selection, and
sufficiently dense, it opposes an enormous resistance to
absorption by the new-comers, whoever they may be”.
This view finds conspicuous support in the permanence

of the Cro-Magnon type of mankind in the Dordogne

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE 147

valley. An interval of at least 20,000 years has not altered
particular skull and face forms there. In Egypt at the
present day the fellaheen resemble to a marked degree
their Neolithic ancestors. Ethnologists explain in this
connection that physical characteristics are controlled by
the females of a community. Intrusions of males as
traders, settlers, or conquerors may have been productive
of variations, but the tendency to revert to the original
type has operated to a marked degree, the “unfits” being
eliminated by local diseases from generation to generation.
In those districts, however, where settlers of alien type
were accompanied by their wives and families, ethnic
changes have been more pronounced. It is not surpris-
ing to find, in this connection, that in a country like
Great Britain primitive types should be found to be still
persistent. The majority of the invaders who crossed the
seas were evidently males.

Since Sergi first roused a storm of criticism by ad-
vancing his theory of the North African origin of the
Mediterranean race, a considerable mass of data has
been accumulated which tends to confirm his conclusions.
Egypt has provided evidence which sets beyond dispute
the fact that once a racial type had been fixed it persisted
for many thousands of years with little or no change.
The problem as to why some heads are long and some
are broad still remains obscure. All that can be said is
that certain peoples developed in isolation during untold
ages their peculiar physical characteristics, which changes
of food and location have failed to alter.

Numerous graves were found during recent years in
Upper Egypt in which the bodies have been preserved
for a space of at least sixty centuries—“not the mere
bones only”, says Professor Elliot Smith, “but also the
skin and hair, the muscles and organs of the body; and

148 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

even such delicate tissues as the nerves and brain, and,
most marvellous of all, the lens of the eye. Thus”, he
adds, “we are able to form a very precise idea of the
structure of the proto-Egyptian.” This distinguished
ethnologist’s description of the early inhabitant of the
Nile valley is of special interest: “The proto-Egyptian
was a man of small stature, his mean height” was “a
little under 5 feet ‘5 inches in the flesh for men, and
almost 5 feet in the case of women. . . . He was of very
slender build, for his bones are singularly slight and free
from pronounced roughness and projecting bosses that
indicate great muscular development. In fact, there is
a suggestion of effeminate grace and frailty about his
bones. . . . Like all his kinsmen of the Mediterranean
group of peoples, the proto-Egyptian, when free from
alien admixture, had a very scanty endowment of beard
and almost no moustache. On neither lip were there
ever more than a few sparsely scattered hairs, and in
most cases also the cheeks were equally scantily equipped.
But there was always a short tuft of beard under the
chin.” The burial customs and the ceramic and> other
remains of the Mediterranean peoples were of similar
character everywhere.!

In some pre-Dynastic Egyptian graves the dead were
wrapped in “ flaxen cloth of considerable fineness”. It is
probable, therefore, that the spindle whorls found in Crete
were invented in Egypt. The brunette complexion of
the Mediterranean Neolithic folk was probably acquired on
the North African coast whence they spread into Europe.
As ships were depicted on Egyptian pre-Dynastic pottery,
it is possible that companies of them crossed the Mediter-
ranean Sea. The great majority entered Europe, how-
ever, across the Straits of Gibraltar, and by the Palestine

1 The Ancient Egyptians, pp. 41 et seq.

MYTHS OF NEOUITHIC: CRETE 149

and Asia Minor route, along the ancient “way of the
Philistines”.

The stomachs of some of the naturally mummified
bodies have been taken out, and when their undigested
contents were submitted to examination, discovery was
made, among other things, of fish bone and scales, frag-
ments of mammalian bones, remains of plants used as
drugs, and husks of barley and millet. The Mediterranean
folks who remained in Egypt were evidently agriculturists,
stock-breeders and fishermen, and non-vegetarians.

A people who had adopted the agricultural mode of
life were able to occupy more limited areas than huntsmen
or pastoralists. Europe must have been thinly populated
at the dawn of the Neolithic Age, when the Mediterranean
peoples began to “peg out claims” in its valleys, round
its shores, and on green inviting islands. The Cretan
pioneers were undoubtedly agriculturists. They grew
peas and barley, and ground their meal in stone mortars
and querns; they fenced their land, and must therefore
have had land laws; and they kept herds of sheep, cattle,
pigs, and goats. The fig- and olive-trees were also culti-
vated. In short, they had imported to Crete the agricul-
tural and horticultural civilization which the Egyptians
credited to Osiris and Isis, before they had begun to carry
on a sea trade with the home country. Evidence has also
been forthcoming that the Neolithic peoples of western
Europe and the British Isles were similarly agriculturists.
Sometimes the teeth taken from graves are found to be in
a ground-down condition. This was partly due to the
deposit of grit in limestone and sandstone mortars and
querns, which mixed with the meal.! The Neolithic folk
who utilized soft stones for milling must have been as

1 The writer and a friend once tested a limestone quern and ascertained that it
deposited as much grit as covered a threepenny piece in about fifteen minutes,

10 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

familiar as some of their modern descendants with the
agonies of toothache and indigestion.

The minority of broad-heads in the early Minoan
period in Crete may have been survivals from Paleolithic
times, or the descendants of slaves. It is more probable,
however, that they represented an infusion of traders and
artisans from Asia Minor. Professor Elliot Smith, who
believes that the Egyptians were the first to work copper,
suggests that “the broad-headed, long-beardec Asiatics”,
of Alpine or Armenoid type, “learned of its usefulness
by contact with the Egyptians in Syria”, and passed on
their acquired knowledge to other peoples. Referring to
Crete in particular he says: ‘We can have no doubt these
people (the Armenoids) began to make their way into
Crete, from Anatolia perhaps, at the time when the diffu-
sion of the knowledge of copper was beginning”.’ Ata
much later period the artisans of North Syria and Anatolia
were famous as metal-workers. One of the results of the
wars waged by Egypt, after the expulsion of the Hyksos,
was the introduction to the Nile valley of coats of mail,
gilded chariots, gold and silver vases, and other articles
which were greatly prized. ‘At this period”, writes
Professor Flinders Petrie, “the civilization of Syria was
equal or superior to that of Egypt. . . . Here was luxury
far beyond that of the Egyptians, and technical work
which could teach them, rather than be taught.”? Many
thousands of prisoners were also taken, and, when tribute
was arranged for, the Pharaoh made it a condition that
his vassals should send “the foreign workmen” with it.
Kings and noblemen also received wives from Syria and
Anatolia. During the Eighteenth Dynasty the typical
Egyptian face, as a result, underwent a change. The
upper and artisan classes became half foreigners. As at
1 The Early Egyptians, pp. 172, 173. 2 A History of Egypt, Vol. Ul, pp. 146, 147.

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE 151

the present day, however, the peasants were unaffected by
the alien infusion, and they constituted the large majority
of the inhabitants.

The broad-heads represent an ancient stock which had
an area of characterization somewhere in Central Asia.
They were apparently separated, during the Late Glacial
and Inter-glacial Periods, for many thousands of years
from the fair northerners and the brunette Mediterraneans
—long enough, at any rate, to develop distinctive physical
characteristics, and also, it would appear, distinctive modes
of thought. They were mainly a pastoral people, and
clung to an upland habitat along the grassy steppes. In
contrast to the lithe and slight agriculturists from North
Africa, they were heavily bearded and muscular; they also
included short and tall stocks. During the Neolithic
Period these broad-heads were filtering into Europe, but
it was not until the early Copper Age that their western
migrations assumed greatest volume.

Evidence as to the source of early Cretan culture and
the homeland of the pioneer settlers may be obtained, not
only by studying physical characteristics, but also early
religious beliefs. There is nothing so persistent as
“immemorial modes of thought”. At the present day
it is possible to find, even in these islands, small com-
munities descended from alien settlers, who have for long
centuries lived beside and never mixed with the descen-
dants of the aborigines. Round the east coast of Scotland,
for instance, the fisher-folks in not a few of the small
towns are endogamous—they rarely marry outside their
own kindred; and they not only speak a different dialect
from their neighbours, but have different superstitions.
So distinctive, too, are their physical traits that they are
easily distinguished in certain localities.

In ancient times peoples of different origin lived more

152 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

strictly apart than is the case nowadays. Herodotus and
other Greek writers sought for clues as to tribal origins by
making reference to burial customs and religious beliefs.

The Carians maintain they are the aboriginal inhabitants of
the part of the mainland where they now dwell, and never had
any other name than that which they still bear; and in proof
of this they show an ancient temple of the Carian Jove in the
country of the Mylasians.?

There is a third temple, that of the Carian Zeus, common
to all Carians, in the use of which also the Lydians and Mysians
participate, on the ground that they are brethren.?

One of the interesting phases of Cretan religion was
the worship of the local Zeus. The deity must not be
confused, however, with the so-called Aryan or Indo-
European Zeus of the philologists of a past generation.
The name Zeus is less ancient than the deities to whom
it was applied. It is derived from the root div, meaning
“bright” or “shining”. In Sanskrit it is Dyaus, in Latin
Diespiter, Divus, Diovis, and Jove, in Anglo-Saxon Tiw,
and in Norse Tyr; an old Germanic name of Odin was
Divus or Tivi, and his descendants were the Tivar. The
Greeks had not a few varieties of Zeus. These included:
“Zeus, god of vintage”, “ Zeus, god of sailors,” “Bald
Zeus”, “Dark Zeus” (god of death and the underworld),
“Zeus-Trophonios”’ (earth-god), “Zeus of thunder and
rain”, “ Zeus, lord of flies”, “ Zeus, god of boundaries”,
“Zeus Soter”’, as well as the “Carian Zeus” and the
“Cretan Zeus”. The chief gods of alien peoples were
also called Zeus or Jupiter. Merodach of Babylon was
“ Jupiter Belus”” and Amon of Thebes “Jupiter Amon”
and so on.

The worship of Zeus, the father-god, had a political
significance. He was imposed as the chief deity on

>

1 Herodotus, 1, 171. 2 Strabo, 659.

‘PY (0D 2 ULTIMIvIY ‘SAsse] JO PUB SazqTWIIOD ay) jo uotssiused pury Aq ‘, sueyry Ie JOOYSS Ysiiag eq) jo [enuuY,, Wory peonpoiday

(6{1 a8ed aas) SOSSONN WOUd “AXITAUY FONAIVA *ONNOA ANV LYOD ATIM

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE rs

various Pantheons by the Hellenic conquerors of prehis-
toric Greece, but local deities suffered little or no change
except in name. Dionysus might be called Zeus, but he
still continued to be Dionysus, the son of the Great Mother,
and did not become Zeus the self-created father-god.

The legend of the Cretan Zeus is as follows: It had
been prophesied by Uranus and Gaia that Cronos would
be displaced by one of his own children. He endeavoured
to avert this calamity by swallowing each babe that was
born to his wife, Rhea. After he had thus disposed of
five of his family, Rhea went to Crete, and in a mountain
cave there gave birth to Zeus. She then returned to her
husband and presented him with a stone dressed up as a
babe, which he swallowed.

Rhea was assisted by her priests, the Curetes, who
danced a war or fertility dance, and her child was fostered
by nymphs (the Cretan “mothers’’), who gave him honey,
so that Cronos would not hear his cries. Milk for
nourishment was provided by the goat Amalthea. So
strong was the child that soon after birth he broke off one
of the goat’s horns, which he presented to the nymphs:
it afterwards became known as Cornucopia, the “ horn of
plenty”’, because it became filled with whatever its owner
desired.

When Zeus grew up he rescued his brothers and
sisters from the stomach of Cronos, and also took forth
the stone which had been substituted for himself: this
stone became sacred to his worshippers. Afterwards he
deposed his father and sat on the throne as chief deity.
Like other ancient gods, he reigned for a time and then
died. His grave was pointed out in Crete, as several
classical authors have testified." Perhaps it was on

1 Diodorus Siculus, U1, 61; Cicero, De natura deorum, III, 21, 533; Lucian, Philo-
pseudes, 3, &c.

164 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

account of their habit of repeating this and other ancient
legends that the Cretans became so notorious among
orthodox Greeks. Paul wrote of them: ‘There are
many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers . . . whose
mouths must be stopped; who subvert whole houses,
teaching things which they ought not. . . . One of them-
selves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans
are always liars.’’?

“Tater Cretan tradition”, writes Sir Arthur Evans,
“has persistently connected the tomb of Zeus with Mount
Juktas, which rises as the most prominent height on the
land side above the site of Knossos. Personal experiences
obtained during two recent explorations of this peak go
far to confirm this tradition. All that is not precipitous
of the highest point of the ridge of Juktas is enclosed by
a ‘Cyclopean’ wall of large roughly oblong blocks, and
within this enclosure, especially towards the summit, the
ground is strewn with pottery, dating from Mycenzan to
Roman times, and including a large number of small
cups of pale clay exactly resembling those which occur in
votive deposits of Mycenzan date in the caves of Dikta
and of Ida, also intimately connected with the cult of the
Cretan Zeus.”

In the vicinity is “the small church of Aphendi
Kristos, or the Lord Christ, a name which in Crete clings
in an especial way to the ancient sanctuaries of Zeus, and
marks here in a conspicuous manner the diverted but
abiding sanctity of the spot. Popular tradition, the exist-
ing cult, and the archeological traces point alike to the
fact that there was here ‘a holy sepulchre’ of remote
antiquity.” °

Early Christian missionaries similarly appropriated else-
where the “holy places” of the Pagan cults. St. Paul’s

1 Titus, t, 10-12, * Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, pp. 121, 122.

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE 155

Cathedral in London probably marks the site of the
ancient sanctuary of the god Lud, which was approached
by Ludgate (the way of Lud). Ancient sculptured stones
are often found built into the walls of old chapels. Some-
times the local saint was worshipped after death as if he
had acquired the attributes of the Pagan deity he dis-
placed. Bulls were offered up in Applecross, Ross-shire,
in 1656, “upon the 25th August”, runs a minute of
Dingwall Presbytery, “which day is dedicate, as they
conceive, to Sn. Mourie as they call him”.

The Cretan Zeus was a deity who each year died a
violent death and came to life again. He thus resembled
closely the Egyptian Osiris, the culture king, who intro-
duced agriculture, was slain by Set (one of whose forms
was the black pig), and afterwards became Judge of the
Dead. We do not know what name was borne by this
Cretan deity. It may have been “Velchanos”’, the youth-
ful warrior of Cretan tradition. A Knossian cult may
have called him Minos. As we have seen, this culture
king, who during life was famed as a lawgiver, became
one of the judges of the dead in the Homeric Hades.
Apparently he was deified and regarded as a form of the
Cretan Dionysus, who differed somewhat from the
Thracian Dionysus.

At what period Zeus-Dionysus was introduced into
Crete it, is impossible to say with certainty. His close
association with agriculture and the underworld suggests
that he was known at an early period, but, as will be
shown in the next chapter, not necessarily the earliest.

To the agriculturists the myths and customs associated
with the sowing and reaping of grain were of as much im-
portance as the implements they used. Every people who

1 St. Maelrubha, the early Christian missionary, who gave his name to Loch Maree

(formerly Loch Ewe). He flourished in the seventh century,
(o 808 ) 14

156 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

in early times adopted the agricultural mode of life adopted
also the religious practices associated with it. Persistent
folk-legends in Greece pointed to Egypt as the fountain-
head of agricultural religion. Diodorus Siculus says that
the mysteries of Dionysus are identical with those of
Osiris, and that the Isis and Demeter mysteries are the
same also, the only difference being in the names applied
to the deities! “Osiris”, says Herodotus, “is named
Dionysus (Bacchus) by the Greeks.”?

The Cretan Zeus-Dionysus links not only with Osiris,
but also with Tammuz of Babylon, Ashur of Assyria, Attis
of Phrygia, Adonis of Greece, Agni of India and his twin-
brother Indra, the Germanic Scef and Frey and Heimdial,
and the Scoto-Irish Diarmid. Each of these deities was
apparently a developed form of a primitive culture-god,
who was a deity of love, fertility, and vegetation; he
symbolized the grass required by pastoralists, the fruit of
wild and cultivated trees, the spring flowers, and the
corn; in short, he was the provider of the food-supply,
and he was the life-principle in the food.

In pre-historic times, when the migrating peoples had
a vague conception of the mysterious Power which con-
trolled the Universe and the lives of men, they did not
give concrete and permanent form to the deities they
worshipped and propitiated and controlled by the per-
formance of magical ceremonies. They believed that the
Power was manifested in various forms at different periods,
and existed in all forms at one and the same time. Osiris
appeared among men as a wise king who introduced agri-
culture and inaugurated just laws; he was at the same
time the moon and the young bull, goat, or boar, who was
given origin by a “ray of light” issuing from the moon.
He was the ancestor of men and edible animals; he was

1 Diodorus Siculus, I, 96. 2 Herodotus, Il, 144.

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE USF

the “‘vital spark” or life-essence in all that grew; he was
the Nile which fertilized the sun-parched desert. Each
Pharaoh was an Osiris, and each pious individual who
died became one with Osiris in the agricultural heaven
which he attained by obeying the laws of Osiris. Thus
Proclus says, in reference to the Greek mysteries: “The
gods assume many forms and change from one to another;
now they are manifested in the emission of shapeless light,
now they are of human shape, and anon appear in other
and different forms”.

The Cretan god was the son of the Great Mother
who has been identified with Rhea. Apparently he also
became her husband. Osiris was the son of Isis, or of
Isis and Nepthys—“the bull begotten of the two cows
Isis and Nepthys”’, and he was also at once the husband
and father of Isis. ‘Tammuz was the son and spouse of
Ishtar, and the later Adonis the lover and son of Aphrodite.

The goddess Demeter and the god Dionysus, her son,
were said to be of Cretan origin. According to Firmicus
Maternus, Dionysus was the illegitimate son of King
Jupiter of Crete, and was hated by Queen Juno. On
one occasion, when Jupiter prepared to leave the island,
he appointed Dionysus to reign in his place. Juno plotted,
during her husband’s absence, with the Titans, who lured
the young prince away and devoured him. Minerva, his
sister, however, rescued his heart and gave it to Jupiter
on his return, and that high god enclosed the heart in a
case and placed it in a temple which he erected, so that it
might be worshipped. Other myths of similar character
are told regarding the young god who was mangled like
the Egyptian Osiris. One variation states that Jupiter
had the heart pounded in a mortar and given to Semele,
who, after eating it, gave birth once more to Dionysus.

4 Ennead, I, 6, 9.

158 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

In the Egyptian Anpu-Bata story, Bata, who is
evidently a primitive god resembling Osiris, exists in
various forms at different periods. His soul enters a
blossom, and when the blossom is destroyed the soul
enters a sacred bull; the bull is slain and the soul is
enclosed in two trees: the trees are cut down, and a chip
having entered the mouth of the Pharaoh’s wife, that
lady gives birth to a child who is no other than the
original Bata.

The identification of the god with an animal suggests
totemism. In one of the early culture stages it was
believed that the spirit of the eponymous tribal ancestor
existed in a bull, a bear, a pig, or a deer, as the case might
be. Invariably the animal was an edible one—the source
of the food-supply, or the guardian of it. Osiris, in one
part of Egypt, was a bull and in another a goat. He
appears also to have had a boar form. Set went out to
hunt a wild boar when he found the body of Osiris and
tore it in pieces.

The sacred animal was tabooed for a certain period of
the year, or altogether. In Egypt the pig was never
eaten except sacrificially. Herodotus says: “The pig is
regarded among them (the Egyptians) as an unclean
animal, so much so that if a man in passing accidentally
touch a pig, he instantly hurries to the river and plunges
in with all his clothes on. Hence, too, the swineherds,
notwithstanding that they are of pure Egyptian blood, are
forbidden to enter into any of the temples, which are open
to all other Egyptians; and further, no one will give his
daughter in marriage to a swineherd, or take a wife from
among them, so that the swineherds are forced to inter-
marry among themselves. They do not offer swine in
sacrifice to any of their gods, excepting Bacchus (Osiris)
and the moon, whom they honour in this way at the same

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE 159

time, sacrificing pigs to both of them at the same full
moon, and afterwards eating of the flesh. . . . At any
other time they would not so much as taste it.””?

According to one of the Cretan legends regarding
Zeus-Dionysus, as related by Athenzus,’ the animal
which nourished with its milk the young god of the
cave was a sow. “Wherefore all the Cretans consider
this animal sacred, and will not taste of its flesh; and the
men of Przsos perform sacred rites with the sow, making
her the first offering at the sacrifice.’® The pig taboo
extended as far as Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and is
still remembered.‘

Dionysus was also associated with the goat, as we have
seen. A clay impression of a gem from Knossos shows
an infant sitting beside a horned sheep.’ Possibly we
have here another form of the legend. The various
animals may have been totemic. Different tribes claimed
descent from different animals which were associated with
the culture-god whom they adopted.

It would appear that the bull tribe achieved ascendancy
in Crete, for the horns of that animal, a piece of “ritual
furniture”, which Sir Arthur Evans refers to “ by antici-
pation” as “the horns of consecration”’, is the commonest
cult objective on pottery, frescoes, gems, steles, and altars.
The horns were evidently a symbol of the god of fertility.
It would appear that before Zeus-Dionysus was depicted
in human shape he was worshipped through his symbols
or attributes.

Another symbol of the god was the 8-form shield.
In North Africa it is found associated with the Libyan

1 Herodotus, I, 47. 2 Pausanias, VII, 17, 5.
3 Cults of the Greek States, L, R. Farnell, Vol. I, p. 37.
4 Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 293-4, and Egyptian Myth and Legend,

pp» vi, vii.
5 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, p. 129.

160 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

goddess Neith, whe was a Great Mother with a fatherless
son. On Mycenzan and Cretan signets and seals this
shield is sometimes shown with human head and arms.
It was used by one of the Hittite tribes, and may be
identical with the Boeotian shield. A similar pattern also
“appears as an ornamental motive on a bronze belt of the
latest Bronze or earliest Hallstatt period in Hungary”.’
The so-called “spectacle marking” on the Scottish sculp-
tured stones, which sometimes appears upright and some-
times longwise, may have been an 8-form shield of sym-
bolic significance—an attribute of the god or goddess of
fertility.

The double axe was another distinctive symbol of the
Cretan god. In Malta certain folk-tales make reference
to “Bufies”, which is believed to signify “ Axe-land ”,
situated somewhere beyond the Sahara. “Axe-land”’, says
Mr. R. N. Bradley, “must be one of the original homes
of the axe, and therefore possibly of Neolithic culture.”?
Votive stone axes, perforated for suspension, are common
in Malta, Cyprus, and other Mediterranean islands. On
the sculptured stones of Brittany the double axe appears
as a symbol or hieroglyph, and it is sometimes grasped by
an outstretched hand.’ In Crete the double axe with long
handle was depicted between the “ horns of consecration”
in outline on stones of pillars of palaces and the Dictean
inner cave, and inside houses, apparently as a charm. It
figures on a gold signet from Mycenz in elaborate form,
beside a goddess, seated beneath a vine. On the upper
part of the signet the sun and crescent moon are enclosed
by “water rays”. Hovering high on the left is the
8-form shield with human head, an uplifted arm with a

1 British Museum Early Iron Age Guide, p. 7.

2 Malta and the Mediterranean Race, p. 126 (1912).

3See The Mediterranean Race, G. Sergi, p. 313, for illustration or axes on one of
the sculptured stones.

‘eypeU, vIysy wos axe e[qQuop wes Fe SI punoiSe10j 943 Ut

ALaUO ‘VIGNVO LV WOAasAW AHL JO WOOU IVdIONIYd FHL

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE 161

staff or spear in the hand, and a single leg below. The
goddess is approached by votaries, who make offerings of
flowers including the iris and hyacinth. Ona gem from
Knossos the goddess grasps the double axe in her hand,
as she does also on a mould from Palaikastro, and other
objects found elsewhere. Sir Arthur Evans is of opinion
that “labyrinth” is derived from /abrys, the Lydian (or
Carian) name for the Greek double-edged axe.'' “ The
suffix in -nth has been conclusively shown ”, says Pro-
fessor Burrows, “to belong to that interesting group of
pre-Hellenic words that survives both in place-names like
Corinth (Corinthos) and Zakynthos . . . and in common
words that would naturally be borrowed by the invaders
from the old population.” Some of these are the words
for “barley-cake”, “basket”, ‘“hedge-sparrow 2? and
“worm”. The similarly formed word for ‘mouse a4
he adds, “which remains as the ordinary Greek word,...
is quoted by the Greek grammarians as a Cretan word.” ?

Wotds like “absinth” and “hyacinth” are similarly
survivals that have been borrowed. Professor Burrows
thinks, however, that /aura, lavra, or labra, signified
“passage”. Laburinthos would thus mean “place of
passages”. He notes that “the early Eastern Church
called its monasteries Laurai, or Labri as they were some-
times spelt. The name must have been originally given,
either from the cloisters round them, or because of the
long passages, with the monks’ cells leading off them; but
this does not seem to have been consciously felt, and the
word was used for the monastery as a whole. The name
indeed is still seen in The Lavra, a monastery at Mount
Athos.’’?

The Cretan Zeus was, as a deity of vegetation, asso-

1 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, pp. 106 ef seq.
2 The Discoveries in Crete, p., 120. 3 The Discoveries in Crete, pp. 118, 119.

162 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

ciated with tree- and water-worship. In the myth about
Cronos swallowing the stone there is evidently a memory
of stone-worship also.

It would appear that more than one folk-wave entered
Crete during the thousands of years which were covered
by the Neolithic Period. At Knossos the earliest settlers
constructed wattle huts, plastered with mud, and were
well advanced in civilization. The Magasa folks, on the
other hand, who produced fewer and cruder artifacts, had
more substantial houses. They built low walls of stone,
and erected a timber framework, which they enclosed in
brick. A similar architectural method appears to have
obtained among the Anatolian Hittites in historic times.
Inside the Magasa house walls were plastered, and the flat
roofs were made of plastered reeds. Both these sections
of Cretans, as has been shown, obtained obsidian from
Melos, and worked it beside their dwellings, as the finds
of flake testify. Whether, however, either or both of
them were contemporaries of the dwellers in the artificial
cave at Miamu is uncertain. It is suggestive, however,
to find that the historic Cretans had sacred caves like the
Hittites, the prehistoric people of Phcenicia, and the
French and Spanish Paleolithic folk of the Aurignacian
and Magdalenian stages of culture. Did they adopt certain
of the religious customs of the descendants of the Palzo-
lithic folks who survived on the island? Or was there
among the earliest settlers a community of Libyans of
mingled stock? The Cro-Magnon type survives till the
present day on the North African coast, where it has been
identified by Collignon and Bertholon among the Berbers.
It may be that there were tall men among the Cretans,
who were distinguished as warriors, as was Goliath among
the Philistines. The Philistines were of Cretan origin.

1 Ripley’s Races of Burope, p. 177.

MYTHS OF NEOLITHIC CRETE 163

Some of the athletes depicted on vases and frescoes appear
to have been above the average stature. It is of interest
to recall, too, in this connection, that the slim waists that
distinguished the Cretans were characteristic also of the
Aurignacian cave-dwellers. This custom of waist-tighten-
ing may have survived from the archeological Hunting
Period. In Gaelic stories there are references to the
“hunger belt”. It is possible, too, that the Cretan girdle
had a religious significance, like the “prayer belt” of
Russia. Sir Arthur Evans found at Knossos snake girdles
which had been deposited as votive offerings in a sacred
place. Two snakes enfolded the hips of the snake-god-
dess. Aphrodite’s girdle compelled love. The Germanic
Brunhild’s great strength lay in her girdle. The dwarf
Laurin was subdyed when his girdle was wrenched off by
the heroic Dietrich. Ishtar wore a girdle.

As has been indicated also (Chapter II), the bell-
mouthed skirt worn by the Minoan women was similar
to that of the Cro-Magnon women depicted in the Auri-
gnacian caves 10,000 years ere the Neolithic folk settled
in Crete. The gowns of the Egyptian women were of
the “hobble” pattern.

Crete, of course, could not have maintained a large
population of hunters. There can be little doubt that its
inhabitants were not numerous at any period prior to the
introduction of agriculture. As the great bulk of its
historic population were of Mediterranean type, it would
appear that North Africa was the source of the high
civilization which obtained at Knossos during the Late
Neolithic Period. The religion of the Cretan agriculturists
resembled in essential details that of the Egyptians. Their
chief deity was the Great Mother, whose son died, like
Osiris, a violent death. No doubt religious borrowing

2 Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 380 and 428,

164 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

took place when the Cretans traded with Egypt, and that
the traditions preserved by Herodotus and other writers
in this connection were not without some foundation.
But, as there existed so close a resemblance between the
fundamental beliefs of the separated peoples, it is impos-
sible to discover to what extent Cretan religion was
influenced by Nilotic. The Sumerian Tammuz myth,
which also resembles the Osirian, was fully developed at
the dawn of history, and Merodach, a fusion of Tammuz
and Ramman, had for one of his names Asari, which has
been identified with Asar (Osiris).

A conclusion which may be suggested is that the
various sections of the Mediterranean race had, prior to
their migrations to suitable areas of settlement from the
North African homeland, adopted a system of religious
beliefs which was closely associated with their agricultural
mode of life, and passed it on afterwards to the peoples,
who learned from them how to till and sow the soil and
reap the harvest in season. The myths of the Phrygian
Attis and the Germanic Scef are probably relics of cultural
contact in bygone ages.

CHAPTER VIII
Pre-Hellenic Earth and Corn Mothers

Mythology and Floating Folk-beliefts—Legends of Egyptian Influence in
Crete—Primitive Spirit Groups as “ Holy Mothers ”—-Evidence from Modern
Greece—Goddesses as Fairy Queens—The Great Mother of Gods, Demons,
and Mankind—Twin Deities and Bisexual Deities—Cult of Self-created Great
Father—Stages of Civilization reflected in Religious Beliefs—Female Demons
of Modern Greece—The Pre-Hellenic and Hellenic Forms of Rhea, “ Mother
of the Gods ””»—The Egyptian “Mothers” Neith and Nut—Earth Mother as a
Serpent— Demeter as the “Barley Mother” —Rhea and the Cretan Snake-
goddess—The Eleusinian Mysteries—The Mysteries of Crete and Egypt—Isis
and Demeter—The Corn and Earth Goddesses of India— Demeter-Perse-
phone Myth—Its Antiquity and Significance—The Later Tammuz-Adonis
Myth—The Demeter of Phigalia—Pre-Hellenic Cult of the Earth Mother—
Fusion of Myths of the Hunting Pastoral and Agricultural Periods—Osiris
and Minos—Osiris and the Minotaur—Eponymus Ancestor as a Son of Earth
——-Minos and Pelasgus—First Man of “Lost Atlantis” —Tvribal Forms of
Animal-headed Gods.

In a previous chapter~ it has been shown that, during
the Late Palzolithic and Neolithic Periods, the worship
of a goddess of maternity, who was at once a destroyer
and preserver, obtained among tribes of Eurafrican and
Eurasian peoples, and that memories of her primitive
savage character have been perpetuated in these islands in
folk-tales and place-names until the present Age. The
past similarly lives in the present in Crete and Greece,
where it is still possible to find traces of the floating
material from which Homeric and Thesiodic Mythology

1 Chapter III.
165

166 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

was framed. Herodotus pondered over this aspect of the
problem and wrote :'

Whence the gods severally sprang, whether or no they had
existed from eternity, what forms they bore—these are questions
of which the Greeks knew nothing until the other day, so to
speak, for Homer and Hesiod were the first to compose ‘Theogonies,
and give their gods their epithets, to allot them their several offices
and occupations, and describe their forms; and they lived but four
hundred years before my time as I believe.”

Herodotus received his information regarding the literary
conception of the deities from three priestesses of the
Dodonzans, who also said:

Two black doves flew away from Egyptian Thebes, and while
one directed its flight to Libya, the other came to them. She
alighted on an oak, and sitting there began to speak with a human
voice, and told them that on the spot where she was, there should
thenceforth be an oracle of Jove (Zeus). They understood the
announcement to be from Heaven, so they set to work at once
and erected a shrine. The dove which flew to Libya bade the
Libyans to establish there the oracle of Ammon (Amon).

In Egypt Herodotus was given a different version of the
legend. ‘The priests of Jupiter (Amon) at Thebes said:

Two of the sacred women were once carried off from Thebes
by the Phoenicians. ‘The story went that one of them was sold
into Libya, and the other into Greece, and these women were the
first founders of the oracles in the two countries.

‘Herodotus also held that the names of some of the deities
came from Egypt.

In early times the Pelasgi, as I know by information which I
got at Dodona, offered sacrifices of all kinds, and prayed to the

gods, but had no distinct names or appellations for them, since
they had never heard of any. They called them gods (6eoi,

1 Herodotus, Il, 53-5. 2 That is during the ninth century B.c.

onl

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 167

disposers), because they had disposed and arranged all things in
such a beautiful order. After a long lapse of time the names
of the gods came to Greece from Egypt, and the Pelasgi learnt
them, only as yet they knew nothing of Bacchus, of whom they
first heard at a much later date. Not long after the arrival of
the names, they sent to consult the oracle at Dodona about them.
This is the most ancient oracle in Greece, and at that time there
was no other. To their question, “whether they should adopt
the names that had been imported from the foreigners?” the
oracle replied by recommending the use of the names of the gods,
and from them the names passed afterwards to the Greeks.!

These statements seem to bear out what the results of
modern research tend to emphasize: that the systematized
mythology was a creation of priests and poets, and had a
political as well as a religious significance. The most
ancient conceptions and beliefs were perpetuated, how-
ever, by the masses of the people, and may still be win-
nowed from existing folk-beliefs and stories.

In Crete the dove and serpent goddesses appear to
have evolved from primitive spirit groups. These were
first conceived of as mothers. ‘The prominence of the
idea of maternity in the Cretan religion”, says Mr. Far-
nell, “is illustrated by the Cretan cult of ‘ Meteres’, the
‘Holy Mothers’ who were transplanted at an early time
from Crete to Engyon in Sicily.” ®

In modern Greece the memory of the spirit groups
still survives. Nymphs and Nereids haunt mountains
and valleys, oceans and streams, and are ruled over by
the “Queen of the mountains”, the “Queen of the
shore”, or primitive forms of the owl-headed Athene or
the beautiful and blood-thirsty Artemis. They are, in
short, exceedingly like our fairies, who obey the commands
of Queen Mab. Some of the Celtic goddesses exist in

1 Herodotus, Il, 52. 2 Cults of the Greek States, Vol, III, p. 295.

168 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

groups: “Proxima (the kinswomen); Dervone (the oak
spirits); Niskai (the water spirits); Maire, Matrone,
Matres or Matre (the mothers); Quadrivie (the god-
desses of cross-roads). The Matres, Matre, and Matrone
are often qualified by some local name. Deities of this
type appear to have been popular in Britain, in the neigh-
bourhood of Cologne, and in Province.... In some
parts of Wales ‘Y Mamau_’ (the mothers) is the name for
the fairies.” The “seven Hathors” of Egypt who pre-
sided at birth were similarly “mothers” and “fates”.
The “Golden Aphrodite” of Greece was chief of the
“deathless fates”. Demeter’s priestesses, the earthly
representatives of her nymphs, conducted a religious
ceremony at weddings, as a Cos inscription shows.’
Fairies in our folk-tales are so fond of pretty children
that they endeavour to steal them, and, when they are
successful, substitute changelings. The Greek Nereids
have, according to modern folk-belief, similar propen-
sities.®

Ancient and modern evidence tends to emphasize the
widespread prevalence among the peoples of the Mediter-
ranean race of the belief in the female origin and con-
trol of life. The primitive “queens” appear to have
developed into goddesses, who were differentiated in
localities to accord with human experiences and _ habits
of life. Among the goddesses one was regarded as the
Great Mother, who gave birth to the chief deities, male
‘and female, the demons and the ancestors of mankind.
“One is the race of men”, sang Pindar, “ with the race
of gods; for one is the mother that gave to both one
breath of life; yet sundered are they by powers wholly

1 Celtic Religion, Prof. Anwyl, pp. 41, 48.
2 Rouse’s Greek Votive Offerings, p. 246.
* Modern Greek Folk-lore and Ancient Greek Religion, J. C. Lawson, p. 141.

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 169

diverse, in that mankind is as naught, but heaven is
builded of brass that abideth ever unshaken.”’}
Sometimes the Great Mother is of dual personality.
The Egyptian sisters Isis and Nepthys were both mothers
of Osiris, as has been indicated —“ the progeny of the two
cows Isis and Nepthys”. In the Indian epic the Mdhad-
hérata, the monarch Jarasandha was similarly reputed to
be the joint son of the two queens. The two parts of
his body were united by Jara, the household genius, after
birth, and his name signifies “united by Jara”.2 Two
goddesses were associated with the Sumerian god Tam-
muz. These were Ishtar and Belit-sheri. Ishtar was his
“ mother’, and he became her lover; Belit-sheri was his
“sister”, Isis was at once the “mother”, “sister”,
“wife”, and “daughter” of Osiris. Demeter and Kore,
and Demeter and Persephone were Greek pairs who had
similar functions. The model of a Mycenean shrine dis-
covered by Schliemann is surmounted by two doves which
were, no doubt, sister goddesses. Images of goddesses
holding a dove in either hand have also been found.
Another mystic conception was that the Great Mother
was bi-sexual. The Libyan Neith was occasionally depicted
as androgyne. Isis was the Egyptian “bearded Aphrodite”,
“the woman who was made a male”, as one of the reli-
gious chants states, “by her father, Osiris”. The Baby-
lonian Ishtar and the Germanic Freya were likewise double-
sexed. This idea that deities were abnormal and super-
human applied not only to goddesses. One of the Orphic
hymns sets forth:
Zeus was the first of all, Zeus last, the lord of lightning;

Zeus was the head, the middle, from him all things were created;
Zeus was Man and again Zeus was the Virgin Eternal.
1 Pindar, Nem. VI, 1, quoted by Lawson in Modern Greek Folk-lore, p. 65.

2 Indian Myth and Legend, Pp. 229
8 The Burden of Isis, Dennis, p. 49: (“Wisdom of the East’’ Series.)

170 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Adonis similarly was “both maiden and youth”. The
Babylonian Nannar (Sin), the moon-god, was “ father ”’
and “mother” of gods and men. So was the Syrian
Baal. In India Shiva is sometimes depicted with the
right side female and the left male. The Persian Mithra
was a god and goddess combined. Herodotus, in fact,
appears not to have known that he was other than a
female deity. He says the Persians worshipped Urania,
“ which they borrowed from the Arabians and Assyrians.
Mylitta is the name by which the Assyrians know this
goddess, whom the Arabians call Alitta, and the Persians
Mithra’”’.

At what remote period this conception became pre-
valent it is impossible to ascertain. It may have had
origin in the Paleolithic Age, when bearded steatopygous
female figurines were carved from ivory similar to those
found in the pre-Dynastic graves of Egypt. Traces of the
doctrine involved are found among the Esquimaux, whose
artifacts so closely resemble those of the Magdalenian stage
of culture, and among certain North American tribes. An-
other view is that the conception resulted from the early
fusion of god and goddess cults, and of the rival funda-
mental ideas connected with them. Babylonia may have
been the region from which the mystical doctrine was
transferred to India on the one hand and Syria on the
other. According to Richard Burton,? “the Phoenicians
spread their androgynic worship over Greece”.

In contrast to the conception of the peoples of the
goddess cult, that life and the world was of female origin,
was that of the peoples of the god cult, who believed that
the first Being was the Great Father. The Scandinavians,
or a section of them, believed that Ymer was the earth
father, and that the underworld deities had origin from

1 Herodotus, I, 131. 2 The Thousand Nights and a Night, Vol. X, p. 231 (1886).

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 171

the perspiration of his armpits, while the demons sprang
from his feet. One of the several creation myths in India
sets forth that the world-giant Purusha was, like Ymer,
the source of all life. The highest caste, the Brahman,
sprang from his mouth, the second, the Kshatriya, from
his arms, the third, the Vaisya, from his thighs, and
the fourth, the Sudra, from his feet.1 In Anatolia the
Armenoid Hatti were father-worshippers. During the
period of their political supremacy their “Lord of
Heaven”, a sky and atmospheric deity with solar attri-
butes, was all powerful. “With the Hittites”, says
Professor Garstang, “fell their chief god from his pre-
dominant place. ... But the Great Mother lived on,
being the goddess of the land. Her cult, modified in
some cases profoundly, by time and changed political
circumstances, was found surviving at the dawn of Greek
history in several places in the interior.”* Zeus of the
Hellenic Greeks was similarly a father god and was im-
posed, as has been indicated, on the pre-Hellenic inhabi-
tants of Greece after conquest. In Egypt Ptah, the god
of Memphis, who wielded a hammer like the Hittite
father god, and was, therefore, a thunderer also, was a
“perfect god”. At the beginning he built up his body
and shaped his limbs ere the sky was fashioned and the
world set in order. ‘No father begot thee”, a priestly
poet declared, “and no mother gave thee birth. Thou
didst fashion thyself without the aid of any other being.’

There is no trace of beliefs of the father cult in Crete.
The Hellenic Zeus, as has been shown, was little more
than a name on the island. It was applied to the young
god who was the son of the Great Mother.

The various representations of the Cretan goddess

1 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 89. 2 The Syrian Goddess, pp. 17, 18.

3 Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 156.
(Cc 808} 15

172 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

suggest that, if they had no totemic significance, she was
supposed to assume various aspects at different seasons
and under different circumstances. As the Lady of
Serpents she may have been the goddess of the Under-
world, and as the Lady of Trees and Doves, the goddess
of birth and fertility. She was also a mountain-goddess
who wielded an axe or wand. It is possible that she was
never sharply defined, and was closely associated with the
vague spirit group of mothers—the “meteres”’, over
whom she may have presided as “queen”.

All the ancient deities reflected the habits of life of
their worshippers, and retained traces of savage con-
ceptions after they assumed benevolent attributes among
cultured peoples. The Cretan Great Mother was evidently
the goddess of the Neolithic folk who adopted the agri-
cultural mode of life and kept domesticated animals. She
was the earth mother and the corn mother, and the pro-
tector and multiplier of flocks and herds. As the Neo-
lithic folk were also huntsmen, their goddess was associated
with wild animals. She had evidently existence before
Osiris taught his people how to sow grain and cultivate
fruit-trees. When we find her guarded by lions it becomes
evident that she was the dreaded being who had to be pro-
pitiated, like Black Annis of Leicester. This savage aspect
of her character must not be lost sight of. It still survives
in Greek folk-belief. The mother who gave origin to
demons as well as gods was evidently, like the Baby-
lonian Tiamat and the blood-thirsty Ishtar, possessed of
primitive demoniac traits. "The peasants of Greece at the
present day remember Lamia, the “Queen of Libya”
who was loved by Zeus. Her children were robbed by
Hera, and she “took up her abode in a grim and lonely
cavern, and there changed into a malicious and greedy
monster, who in envy and despair stole and killed the

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 173

children of more fortunate mothers”. Another kind of
Lamia, the Gello, transforms herself into a fish, a serpent,
a kite, or a skylark, and devours babes also. When one
of these demons is slain, no grass grows where her blood
falls.1_ In Gaelic folk-tales no grass grows under whin-
bushes or holly-trees, because the Cailleach has touched
the ground there with her hammer.

The Cretan mother-goddess appears to have possessed
the attributes of the various goddesses who were differ-
entiated in classic mythology. The pre-Hellenic Mother,
one of whose names appears to have been Rhea, was taken
over by the Greeks and given a place in the Olympian
group. Her original character became vague. She was
seated on a throne beside which her lion crouched in
repose, and her ancient functions were performed by her
children: Hestia, who resembled the Roman Vesta;
Demeter, who resembled the Roman Ceres; Hera, who
resembled the Roman Juno; and the gods Zeus and
Poseidon, her sons, who link with the Roman Jupiter
and Neptune. Her husband was the savage Cronos, who
devoured his children like so many other primitive deities
in various lands.

But the Hellenic Rhea, although called the “ Mother
of the Gods”, was not a self-created being, but the
daughter of Gaia, the earth mother, and Uranus, the
sky father, who equate with the Aryo-Indian Dyaus, and
Prithivi, the sky father and earth mother of Indra. In
Egypt, on the other hand, the mother goddess was Nut
of the sky, and the father the earth-god Seb. The Libyan
Neith, however, who appears to have been a form of Nut,
was an earth, sky, and atmospheric goddess. Her wor-
shippers made her declare:

I am what has been, what is, and what shall be,

1 Lawson’s Modern Greek Folk-lore, pp. 173 et seqs

174 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

and those of Nut said of that Great Mother:
She hath built up life from her own body.

It would appear that the pre-Hellenic and Cretan
Rhea was at once Gaia, Demeter, Artemis, and the earlier
Aphrodite, and that she was originally identical with the
pre-Hellenic Athene and Artemis, and the Phrygian
Cybele.

Gaia was vaguely defined, yet belief in her was wide-
spread. She was a divine prophetess, a fate, a power
behind the gods. Like all primitive deities, including the
Sumerian Tiamat, she had to be propitiated or fought
against. Apparently one of her incarnations was the
Delphian snake, others being snakes of different cults
which were oracles. The priestesses who drank the blood
of bulls and entered sacred caves to prophesy were believed
to hold commune with the earth mother, the divine re-
vealer. The wisdom with which serpents were supposed
to be endowed was of great antiquity. They were also pro-
tectors of tribes and households, and symbols of fertility.
In Egypt Isis and Nepthys had serpent forms. The tute-
lary goddess of the Delta was Uazit, the winged serpent,
and oracles were ascribed to her. She was the guardian of
the child Horus when Set sought for him with murderous
intent. Snakes, “dragons”, and “worms’’ were pro-
tectors of hidden treasure. Sacrifices were offered to
these blood-thirsty monsters, so that they might be pro-
pitiated, either as protectors of households or givers of
crops and edible animals. The ancient custom of slaying
a human being or animal when foundation-stones were
laid or seeds were sown appears to have been connected
with the belief that the earth genius must be sacrificed
to so that her goodwill and co-operation might be
secured. In the snake-goddess of Crete we should

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 175

recognize, it would appear, the anthropomorphic form
of the primitive Gaia.

The earth mother who possessed stores of hidden
treasure was, as Anesidora, “she who sends up gifts”. One
of her gifts was the food-supply. She provided grass for
flocks and herds, caused trees to blossom and bear fruit,
and to her agricultural worshippers gave rich harvests.

The specialized ‘form of the goddess most closely
associated with crops was Demeter. Mever signified
“mother”, but the meaning of the prefix is uncertain.
According to W. Mannhardt deai was the Cretan word
for “barley”, and the goddess was the “Barley Mother”’.*
Others hold that the prefix is a dialectic variant of the
word for “earth”.

But although the etymology of her name may remain
doubtful, her real character is otherwise revealed. Melanip-
pides and Euripides identified her with Rhea when they
called her “mother of the gods”, and the fact that the
“earth snake” was invariably associated with her shows
that she shared the attributes of Gaia, the elder “mother”,
and resembled closely the snake-goddess of Crete. She
was associated with tree-worship, and the story was told
that she punished Erysichthon by causing him to suffer
dreadful hunger for cutting down trees in her sacred
grove. In one of the hymns she is petitioned to gift the
apple crop. As tree-goddesses were also water-goddesses,
it is interesting to find that springs were dedicated to her
in Attica and elsewhere, and that Euripides referred to
her wanderings over rivers and the ocean. This poet
also associated her with mountains, so that she must have
been a guardian of animals like the primitive Scoto-Irish
Cailleach, and a mountain-goddess like the Cretan “ lady”
who was depicted on the summit of a high peak.

1 Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 292 et seq

176 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

It was chiefly, however, as a provider of the food-
supply that Demeter was addressed. She was asked for
gifts of cattle and corn and fruit, and bulls and cows were
sacrificed to her. Consequently she was a deity of fer-
tility and a love-goddess. The pig was also sacrificed to
her as to other earth spirits. As has been stated, pork
was tabooed in Crete, and appears to have been eaten
sacrificially only. Demeter’s connection with the under-
world emphasizes her character as a Fate—a goddess of
birth and death, who controlled and measured the lives of
mankind.

Demeter’s great festival was called the Eleusina, the
legendary explanation being that it was first celebrated at
Eleusis, in Attica. One of its features was the mystic
ceremony of initiation. Little is known regarding the
Eleusinian mysteries. It would appear, however, from
stray literary references to, and sculptured scenes of, the
ceremony performed, that it was of elaborate character.
The candidate fasted, and bathed in the sea with a young
pig which was to be sacrificed. Having thus been purified,
he entered the sacred place, where he drank of a posset
prepared from the “ first fruits” —barley or grapes. For
a time his head and shoulders were covered by a cloth, so
that he could not see what was happening about him.
Probably he was terrorized. A priest instructed him, and
he performed symbolic acts, and took vows.

_ The ceremony appears to have had a religious signifi-
cance. ‘Whoever goes uninitiated to Hades”’, says Plato,
‘will lie in mud, but he who has been purified and is
fully initiate, when he comes thither will dwell with the
gods’”’

According to Diodorus Siculus,? the Cretans professed
that they gave the mysteries to Greece, and that they

1 Phedo, 69 c *V, 77+

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 177

were performed openly on their island and communicated
to everyone in ancient times. The same writer says that
the Cretans received the mysteries from Egypt, the
mysteries of Isis being the same as those of Demeter and
the mysteries of Osiris the same as those of Dionysus."
Plutarch expresses a similar view.” Herodotus, referring
to the festival at Busiris, in the Delta, says that “it is
in honour of Isis, who is called in the Greek tongue
Demeter”. Apparently there were strong resemblances
between the mysteries of Isis and those of Demeter.

It does not follow, however, that the Cretans had no
anthropomorphic goddess, and knew naught of the
mysteries until they began to trade with Egypt across the
Mediterranean Sea. The resemblance between Isis and
Demeter may have been due to both Egyptians and
Cretans having inherited similar beliefs from their common
ancestors in the area where the Mediterranean race was
characterized. As much is suggested by the fact that
there existed apparently in Crete, and undoubtedly in
pre-Hellenic Greece, an ancient myth in which Demeter
is associated, not with the young god Dionysus, who links
with Osiris, Attis, and Tammuz, but with a young goddess.
This myth did not survive in Egypt; that, however, it
existed there at one time is suggested by the close asso-
ciation of Isis and Nepthys, the joint mothers of Osiris.
In India the story of Sita, who was an incarnation of
Lakshmi, is suggestive in this connection. This heroine
of the Rémdyana, having served her purpose on earth,
departs to the Underworld.

The earth was rent and parted, and a golden throne arose,

Held aloft by jewelled Nagas‘ as the leaves enfold the rose,
And the Mother in embraces held her spotless, sinless child.

1 Phedo, 1-96. 2 Isis et Osiris, 35. Tl, 50:
4 Serpents, 5 Bashudha, the earth mother,

178 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Then they vanished together. “In the ancient hymns of
the Rig Veda”, says Romesh C. Dutt, “Sita is simply the
goddess of the field furrow which bears crops for men.
We find how that simple conception is concealed in the
Rdmdyana, where Sita, the heroine of the epic, is still born
of the field furrow, and after all her adventures returns
to the earth.”’?

The daughter of Demeter was Kore - Persephone.
The ancient legend regarding the abduction of the young
goddess is as follows.

It chanced that one day Persephone, daughter of
Demeter, was wandering in a flowery meadow gathering
lilies and violets, roses and crocuses, and hyacinths and
narcissuses. Suddenly the earth opened, and Pluto, god
of Hades, appeared, seated in a golden car. Seizing the
maiden, he carried her off. Her cries were heard by the
golden-haired Demeter, who assumed a dark mantle and
wandered over mountains, rivers, and oceans, searching in
vain for her daughter. On the tenth day she met Hecate,
who conducted her to the sun-god. This all-seeing deity
informed Demeter that Pluto had carried off Persephone
with the consent of Zeus. On hearing this, Demeter
withdrew from Olympus, and she vowed never to return
until her daughter was restored to her. She also cast a
blight upon the earth, and men ploughed and sowed in
vain; no barley grew, nor did trees yield fruit. The
goddess retired to Eleusia, and the king’s daughters found
her sitting at the Maiden’s Well below an olive-tree.
Celeus, the king, received her hospitably, and she became
the nurse of his sons Triptolemus and Demophon. She
desired to make Demophon an immortal, and put him
one night in a fire; but his mother screamed aloud, with
the result that the spell was broken, and he perished.

1 The Ramdyana condensed into English verse (Temple Classics, 1898),

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS _ 179

Similarly, Isis thrust into the fire the infant son of the
King of Byblus, whom she had been engaged to nurse,
when searching for Osiris. Demeter compensated the
parents for their loss (or sacrifice) by giving Triptolemus
seeds and instructing him in the art of agriculture. She
also conferred upon him a chariot which was drawn by
winged dragons. Pausanias says that she instructed
Triptolemus and his father in the performance of her
rites and mysteries.”

Many stories were related regarding Demeter’s wan-
derings. One was that she fled from Poseidon as a mare,
and that he assumed the form of a stallion. She after-
wards became the mother of the horse Areion, which had
the gift of speech. Hesiod, however, makes Medusa the
spouse of Poseidon in his horse form and the mother of
the winged Pegasus.

In Phigalia Pausanias® saw the cave “sacred to Black
Demeter”. Here she was fabled to have dwelt for a
time sorrowing for her daughter. Meanwhile the blight
remained upon the earth, and mankind were perishing
from famine. The gods searched for, and Pan discovered,
her hiding-place. Then Zeus sent the Fates to her, and
when he was informed that she would not remove the
blight until Persephone was restored to her, he com-
manded that she should be released by Pluto, The god
of Hades accordingly restored Persephone to her mother.
She was brought from Hades by Hermes, and was received
with glad heart by her mother, who at once restored
fertility to the earth.

Zeus, however, had made it a condition of Persephone’s
release that she had not eaten aught in Hades. To secure
her return, Pluto gave her a pomegranate seed before
her departure, and when this fact was revealed the young

1 Egyptian Myth and Legend. * II, 14. § VIII, 42,

180 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

goddess had to return again to the gloomy Underworld.
Once more Demeter sorrowed, and cursed the earth in
her wrath. A compromise had, therefore, to be effected,
and Zeus decreed that Persephone should spend one-third
of each year on earth with her mother, and the remaining
two-thirds with Pluto in Hades.

In this Demeter-Persephone myth the young goddess
plays the same part as Tammuz and Adonis, who spent
part of the year on earth with one goddess, and part of
the year in the Underworld with the other. She is not
slain and dismembered like these gods and the Egyptian
Osiris. The part of Osiris is taken by Triptolemus, who
received the grain seeds from Demeter, as Osiris, the dei-
fied king, received them from Isis. It is evident, therefore,
that if the Cretans and pre-Hellenic Greeks borrowed the
mysteries from Egypt, they did so before the Osirian
myth was fully developed—that is, before the migration
from North Africa of the tribes of the Mediterranean
race. It is unnecessary to assume that the earliest agri-
cultural settlers in Greece and Crete had no knowledge of
the Mysteries. Even the Australian savages have their
initiation and other rites.

It is evident that the primitive form of Demeter in
Arcadia bore a close resemblance to the repulsive hags of
England and Scotland. Like the snake-goddess of Crete,
she retained in her symbols her early demoniac traits.
Pausanias? tells that in the cave of Phigalia the ancient
figure of the Black Demeter was of wood; it was seated
on a rock and had a mare’s head,” which had above it the
figures of snakes and other monsters. She held a dolphin
in one hand and a dove in the other. When this statue

1 VIII, 42.
2 The result, apparently, of the local fusion ot the old earth-goddess cult and the
horse cult of invaders,

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 181

was accidentally burnt, the Phigalians neglected the festivals
and ceased to offer up sacrifices. Then a terrible famine
afflicted the land. An oracle was consulted, and the
people were informed that they were being punished for
forgetting that Demeter had introduced among them the
cultivation of corn.

Professor Frazer,! dealing with the form of the myth
as it is given in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, regards
Demeter and Persephone as personifications of the corn
—the former as the old corn of last year and the latter
as the seed corn in autumn and sprouting in spring.
Persephone’s period in Hades was the period in which
the sprouting seed remained under the earth.” The Black
Demeter appears to have been the personification of the
barren earth in winter, the Green Demeter the goddess
of growing corn, and the Yellow Demeter the harvest
deity. In their seasonal festivals the ancient agriculturists
rejoiced and sorrowed alternately in sympathy with the
goddess.

It would appear that the various names of the ancient
earth mother were in turn individualized as separate
deities. ‘As pre-Homeric offshoots of Gaia”, says Dr.
Farnell, “we must recognize Demeter, Persephone, and
Themis.’’? Themis was the Titan who became the second
wife of Zeus. Kore appears, too, to have been originally
identical with Demeter. ‘From the two distinct names”’,
Dr. Farnell considers, “two distinct personalities arose.
... Then as these two personalities were distinct, and
yet in function and idea identical, early Greek theology
must have been called upon to define their relations.
They might have been explained as sisters, but as there

1 Golden Bough (“Spirits of the Corn and Wild”), Vol. I, pp. 37 et seq.
2 The length of the period is differently estimated by various writers,
3 Cults of the Greek States, Vol. V, pp. 119 et seq.

182 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

was a male deity in the background, and Demeter’s name
spoke of maternity, it was more natural to regard them as
mother and daughter. And apart from any myth about
Demeter’s motherhood, Persephone-Kore might well have
been a very early cult title, meaning simply the girl-
Persephone, just as Hera, the stately bride mother, was
called, ‘Hera the girl’ at Stymphalos . . . or the facts
could be brought into accord with another supposition.
‘Kore’ may have been detached from such a ritual name
as Demeter-Kore, ‘the girl-Demeter ’.’’?

In Crete, therefore, the snake-, dove-, and mountain-
goddesses may have been seasonal forms of the Mother
Earth. Until the inscriptions are read, however, it cannot
be said with certainty whether or not they developed into
separate personalities. All that can be said is that the
legends which associate Rhea and Demeter with Crete
are highly suggestive in this connection. Athene, a pre-
Hellenic goddess, who was associated with the ubiquitous
earth-snake, may have been a specialized form of Gaia
also. Like the Libyan Neith, she developed as a war- and
fertility-goddess, and was identified with that deity by
Herodotus and other writers. The animals sacrificed to
her were the bull, cow, sheep, and pig, and, once a year,
the tabooed goat.

What appears to be certain is that in pre-Hellenic
Greece and Crete, and elsewhere throughout Europe, the
Earth Mother was worshipped and propitiated from an
early pre-historic period. Her mysteries were performed
in caves, as were also the Paleolithic mysteries. In the
caves there were sacred serpents, and it may be that the
prophetic priestesses who entered them were serpent-
charmers.

Cave worship was of immense antiquity. The cave

1 Cults of the Greek States, Vol. V, pp. 119-24.

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 183

was evidently regarded as the door of the Underworld, in
which dwelt the snake form of Mother Earth. Swine
were sacrificed to her, a custom which appears to have
had origin in the Archzological “Hunting Period”. In
the Scoto-Irish Fian (Fingalian) stories the love hero,
Diarmid, the Adonis of the pre-Agricultural peoples, is
slain by the boar leader of the swine-herd of Mala Lith,
“Gray Eyebrows”, the dark-visaged Cailleach (Old Wife),
who was the mother of men and demons and wild animals.
This legend may be a reminiscence of human sacrifice.
Demeter’s pig, like Athene’s goat, was perhaps of totemic
origin. The boar clan and the goat clan would have made
blood offerings to their totems, as do the Australian Kan-
garoo and Witchetty-grub tribes to theirs, to secure the
food-supply.

In the “Pastoral Period” sacrifices of bulls and cows
must have become prevalent. The goddess was then the
cow mother, who caused the herds to multiply, and pro-
vided them with grass. Hathor, the Egyptian goddess,
had the body of a woman and the head of a cow. In one
of the archaic versions of the Osirian myth Horus cuts
off the head of his mother Isis, and the moon-god Thoth
replaces it with a cow’s head. Isis had also a serpent
form, being evidently an earth-mother in origin.

When agriculture was introduced, the various tribes
recognized their earth-black and grass-green mother-
goddess in a new form—the harvest-haired corn spirit.
But she still retained all her immemorial attributes: she
did not cease to be the earth-snake, the hag huntress
among the mountains and in valleys, the cow goddess of
grassy steppes and green oases, and the spirit of fig-tree
and olive and vine. Around her, too, hovered the ani-
mistic groups who were remembered in after time as
nymphs and _ fairies. She also retained her association

184 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

with the animal forms she assumed in season as the deity
of fertility. There were serpents in her hair, a dove in
one hand and a dolphin in the other, like the Demeter of
the cave of Phigalia Withal, she was the standing-stone
which was visited at certain phases of the moon by women
who prayed for offspring. In the Scoto-Irish legend, the
Cailleach, after the period of spring storms, transforms
herself into “a gray stone looking over the sea”. In
India goats are sacrificed to the stone of the goddess
Durga, which stands below a sacred tree. The legend
of the birth of the Cretan Zeus is of special interest in
this connection. Cronos swallowed a stone, believing it
was Rhea’s son, and it was afterwards set up as a sacred
object at Delphi. The original Zeus was evidently wor-
shipped as a stone pillar—the pillar which enclosed his spirit,
or the spirit of his earthly representative, the priest-king.
The earliest form of the agricultural myth, judging
from the Demeter-Persephone legend, appears to have
been one in which goddesses only were concerned. All
the ceremonies performed were based on the experiences
of the sorrowing and wandering mother, the dark woman
who concealed herself in a cave, and the abducted daughter
condemned to pass part of the year in the Underworld.
It is possible that the Osirian legend, in which the
daughter is displaced by the slain young god, came to
Crete from Egypt by an indirect route—perhaps with a
community of late invaders from Syria or Anatolia. After
Osiris taught the Egyptians the art of agriculture he
went abroad on a mission of civilization, and when he
was slain, and set adrift in a chest, Isis voyaged to Byblus
to recover his body. This may be a memory of the
missionary enterprise of the Osirian cult. Minos, the
Cretan king who resembles Osiris as an earthly king and
lawgiver, became, like his prototype, a judge of the dead.

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 185

His mother, Europé, a princess of Phoenicia, who was
abducted by the Zeus bull, may have been a form of the
cow Isis.

The Minotaur may have been a still more primitive
form of Osiris. That god, as Apuatu, his earliest known
form, was “the opener”. He was therefore identical
with the animal-headed Anubis. The mother of the
Minotaur was Pasiphae, the queen. Like the Egyptian
Queen Isis, she appears to have had originally a cow form,
which gave rise to the legend that Dedalus constructed
for her the image of a cow, which she entered. The
legend that the Minotaur was slain by Theseus may have
displaced an earlier myth about the slaying of the corn-
god in his bull form. In the Anpu-Bata Egyptian story
_the sacred bull is slain so that its spirit may enter its tree
incarnation. The Apis bull was periodically sacrificed in
early times.

Although human sacrifices were offered to the Mino-
taur—the victims, no doubt, of the bull-ring—that fact
need not be urged against the identification of the blood-
thirsty monster with Osiris. It is not improbable that
the primitive Osiris was a bull-headed man like the
Minotaur, which in one of the Cretan seal impressions
is depicted seated on a throne below a tree conversing
with a priest; its close resemblance to Anubis and
Sebek is highly suggestive of Egyptian origin.’ Professor
Breasted has proved, from the evidence of the early Pyra-
mid texts, that Osiris had at one time as unsavoury a
reputation as the Cretan Minotaur. He calls him “a
dangerous god”, and adds: “The tradition of his
[Osiris’s] unfavourable character survived in vague re-
miniscences long centuries after he had gained wide
popularity. At that time [the prehistoric period] the

1 The British School at Athens, Vol. VII,. 18.

186 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

dark and forbidding realm which he ruled had been
feared and dreaded. In the beginning, too, he had been
local to the Delta, where he had his home in the city of
Dedu, later called Busiris by the Greeks. His transfor-
mation into a friend of man and kindly ruler of the dead
took place here in prehistoric ages.” *

Osiris in his later form was a deified ruler, who
received knowledge of the art of agriculture from the
earth-goddess, like the Greek Triptolemus. His violent
death, with dismemberment, is suggestive of the sacrifice of
the old king so that his spirit might pass to his successor.
There can be little doubt that human sacrifices were at
one time prevalent among the peoples of the Mediter-
ranean race, although they were forbidden ultimately in
Osirian texts. Isis and Demeter, as has been shown,
burned children before they revealed to mankind the art
of agriculture. Dr. Farnell favours the view that the
ancient custom of human sacrifice has survived as a
memory in the legend which relates that the daughters of
Cecrops, having been driven mad by the goddess Athena,
flung themselves down from the rock of the Acropolis of
Athens. Of similar character is the tradition that the
first lot of maidens who were sent from Locris to be
priestesses and handmaidens in Athena’s temple were slain
and burnt, their ashes having been afterwards cast from a
mountain into the sea. “It is clear”, Dr. Farnell com-
ments, “this is no mere story of murder, but a reminis-
cence of peculiar rites.””

Europé, as bride of Zeus, was probably, like Pasiphae,
wife of Minos, a developed form of the Earth Mother.
Minos and the Minotaur may similarly be regarded as
forms of Osiris, the former an eponymous patriarch whose

1 Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 38 (1912).
2 Cults of the Greek States, Vol. I, pp. 260 et seq.

THE BULL-BAITERS

From the painting by John Duncan, A.R.S.A.
(See page 287)

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 187

spirit passed from king to son, and the latter as a link
between the animal and anthropomorphic forms of the
tribal deity, who was also the eponymous ancestor. Ac-
cording to Pausanias! the Arcadians believed that the first
settler in their land was Pelasgus, the eponymous ancestor,
apparently, of the Pelasgians. Asius, he says, referred to
him as follows :—

Divine Pelasgus on the tree-clad hills
Black earth brought forth, to be of mortal race.

“And Pelasgus”, he proceeds, “when he became king
contrived huts that men should be free from cold and rain,
and not be exposed to the fierce sun, and also garments
made of the hides of pigs, such as the poor now use in
Eubcea and Phocis. He was the inventor of these com-
forts. He, too, taught people to abstain from green leaves
and grass and roots that were not good to eat, some even
deadly to those who eat them. He discovered also that
the fruit of some trees was good, especially acorns.’”?

A similar legend is related by Plato regarding the
patriarch of his Lost Atlantis. He states that on the hill
above the palace (Knossos) lived “one of those men who
in primitive times sprang from the earth, by name Evenor.
His wife was Leucippe. They had only one daughter,
named Clito”’. Clito became the wife of Poseidon, and
the ancestress of all the tribes.’

Minos, like Pelasgus, was evidently a semi-divine
patriarch. Sir Arthur Evans shows that the “tomb of
Zeus” was at one time called the “tomb of Minos”.
This “seems to record a true religious process”, he says,
“by which the cult of Minos passed into that of Zeus’’.4

Probably the legend of the birth of Minos was appro-

VIII, 1. ? Pausanias, trans. by A. R, Shilleto, Vol. II, pp. 61-2.

3 The Critias, Section VIII. 4 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, p. 121,
(c 808) 16

188 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

priated by the Zeus cult. The child was suckled, accord-
ing to one legend, by a sow, and to another by a goat—
totemic animals, perhaps, from whom the food-supply
was received. A Knossos seal impression depicts a child
suckled by a horned sheep. Sir Arthur Evans refers, in
this connection, to the legends of the son of Akakallis,
daughter of Minos, being suckled by a bitch; of Miletos,
“the mythical founder of the Cretan city of that name”,
being nursed by wolves; and of the fabled suckling of the
Roman twins by ashe-wolf. ‘There is”, he says, “some
interesting evidence of a cumulative nature, which shows
that Rome itself was indebted to prehistoric Greece for
some of the oldest elements in her religion.”* The
Indian heroine, Shakuntala, was guarded at birth by
vultures, as Semiramis was by doves, while the eagle pro-
tected Gilgamesh and the Persian patriarch Akhamanish.
In Egypt Horus was nourished and concealed by the
serpent-goddess Uazit.

All the eponymous heroes had probably animal forms
at the earliest period. Serpents figure prominently in the
winged disk of Horus, suggesting the fusion of the falcon
and serpent clans of Egypt. The young god was usually
depicted with a falcon’s head and a human body, and he
was an eponymous ancestor. In the bull-headed Minotaur,
therefore, it would appear that we have a survival of an
early form of a Cretan Osiris or Horus, the link between
the bestial deity and human beings.

The Minotaur, however, was not the only man mon-
ster who received recognition in Crete. At Zagros Mr.
Hogarth discovered a large number of clay sealings de-
picting man-stags, man-lions, man-goats, eagle-women,
goat-women, and so on. One of the forms of the Sumerian
Tammuz-Ningirsu was a lion-headed eagle.

1 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, pp. 128, 129.

EARTH AND CORN MOTHERS 189

It may be that, before the legendary Minos established
his empire, Crete was divided into petty states, each of
which had its separate animal-headed god or goddess.
These deities may have been originally totems. When
the totem was slain the priest-king was wrapped in its
skin, as was the Sumerian Ea in the skin of the fish.
The priest-king was an incarnation of the totem. If the
custom of depicting deities partly in bestial and partly in
human form arose in this way, it was of exceedingly re-
mote origin, for, as we have seen (Chapter II), there were
animal-headed deities in the Late Palzolithic Period.

Greek legends regarding Crete take no account of
the stag- and eagle-headed monsters. The Minotaur
with bull’s head and forelegs and human body and legs
overshadowed them all. This fact is highly suggestive.
Possibly the explanation is that the bull clan of Minos,
which was established at Knossos, attained political su-
premacy over the whole island, with the result that its
Minotaur became the chief deity. This would account
also for the myths regarding the sea-bull forms of Poseidon
and Zeus, and the notorious ceremonies associated with
the bull-ring at Knossos. The Minos clan may have
invaded and conquered the island. Some authorities are
inclined to regard Minos as a conqueror. Plato says of
Atlantis that it was governed by a warrior class which
lived separately in the more elevated parts, and had
“common rooms of entertainment’.

The same writer goes on to say that after a bull was
captured at the annual festival, the people gathered round
the fire in which it was sacrificed, to judge transgressors of
the laws inscribed on a certain column.2 The laws were
probably those which were credited to Minos.

The conclusions which may be drawn from the evi-

1 The Critias, Section VI. 2 Ibid., Section XV.

190 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

dence available are as follows: Traces survived in Cretan
religion of various stages of culture. New settlements
were effected on the island from time to time by peoples
of common origin, who introduced advanced systems of
religion which were grafted on to the old. The worship
of the Earth Mother was ever pre-eminent. At first she
was the culture deity who instructed mankind. Then
the tribal hero whom she favoured was elevated to the
Pantheon, the living king being his incarnation on earth,
while the dead king was his incarnation in the Underworld
as the judge of the dead. As this deified hero displaced
an earlier man-monster, who was the son of the mother
goddess, and her earthly representative, the legend arose
that the hero had actually slain him. Minos, who hated
the Minotaur, may have been the original of the legendary
Theseus. That is, Theseus may have been a real king
who released Athens from the sway of the Minoan kings
and absorbed the Minos-Heracles myth of Crete. The
Minos clan came, perhaps, like the legendary Europé,
from the Syrian coast, where it had adopted the later
Osirian faith. After Crete traded directly with Egypt
cultural influences filtered across the Mediterranean. It is
unlikely, however, that the religion of the Cretan people
as a whole was so profoundly affected by the imported
beliefs of the rival cults of Egypt and Libya as they were
by those of kindred peoples who settled on the island
and exercised direct political influence there. In pre-
Hellenic times the Minoan kings colonized parts of Greece,
and traditions of Crete’s cultural influence survived long
after the Homeric Age, although the splendour of its
ancient civilization became a blurred and faded memory
which in time was associated with the Lost Atlantis.

1 The sacrificial slaying of the sacred animal may have also survived in the legend,

CHAPTER IX

Growth of Cretan Culture and Commerce

Cretan Origin of Aegean Civilization—The Historic Periods—Cretan and
Egyptian Chronologies—Egyptian Evidence of Early Shipping — Pottery as
Evidence of Racial Drifts—Asiatic Invasions—The Libyans and Early Cretans
—Evidence of Imported Sea-shells—Physical Features of Crete— Prevailing
Air-currents—Why A®gean Mariners sailed by Night—Homeric References
to Night Voyages—Fertility of Crete—Its Natural Beauties—Life on Sea-coast
and among the Mountains—Corn and Wine Harvests—Surplus Products for
Early Commerce—Glimpses of Early Minoan Times—Relations with Egypt
in Pyramid Period—Story of the Stone Jars—Invention of Potter’s Wheel—
Borrowings from Egypt—Cretan Ceramic Development—Problem of Sea.
Routes—Cretans as Ha-nebu and Keftiu.

Tue discoveries in Crete have proved conclusively that
its pre-Hellenic culture was of great antiquity and local
growth. It had developed with unbroken continuity
from Neolithic times, and so pronounced was its indi-
vidual character that it could borrow from contemporary
civilizations without suffering loss of identity.

Cretan civilization was immensely older than Myce-
nzan. Indeed it had reached its “Golden Age” before
Mycenz assumed any degree of importance as a cultural
centre. ‘This fact has compelled archeologists to select
a new name which could be appropriately applied to it.
Professor Reisch favours “AZ gean”’, and, all things con-
sidered, this generic term appears to be the most appro-
priate. It takes into account the obscure influences which
were at work during the lengthy Neolithic Period, when

independent communities were settled on various islands
191

192 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

and on points on the mainland and had begun to trade
one with another. The Island of Melos, for instance, as
we have seen, was exporting obsidian and importing in
exchange apparently the products of other localities. The
influence of environment was directing into new lines the
common form of culture derived from the North African
homeland by the predominant race.

Mycenzan civilization is placed in its proper perspec-
tive by referring to it as a late stage of Aigean. On the
other hand, Cretan was an early and local form of it. “In
Crete”, says Mr. H. R. Hall, “it first developed, then
spreading northwards it absorbed the kindred culture of
the islands, and perhaps the Peloponnese; then it won
Central Greece north of the Isthmus from its probably
alien aborigines, becoming there ‘Mycenzan’, and finally,
when its own end was near, forced its way into Thessaly,
having already reached the Troad in one direction, Cyprus
(and Philistia later) in another, Sicily and Messapia in
another.” ?

Sir Arthur Evans has divided the history of Augean
civilization in Crete into three main periods, named after
the legendary king, or Dynasties of kings, called Minos.
i hesevare:

Early Minoan.
Middle Minoan.
Late Minoan.

Each of these periods has also been divided into three
stages: Early Minoan I, Early Minoan IJ, Early Minoan
III, and so on to Late Minoan III.

The Minoan Age begins with the introduction of
bronze, which occurred, however, long after Agean civili-
zation had assumed distinctive form. Crete was then

1 The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. I, p. 111 (April, 1914).

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 193

able to borrow and adapt to its own use the inventions
of other countries, and yet maintain the individuality of
its local institutions and art products, The introduction
of bronze stimulated its industries, but caused no more
change in its national characteristics than has been effected
in China by the introduction of electric lighting in our
own day. 5

Cretan archeologists as a whole are agreed as to the
order and relative duration of the various historic periods,
and most of them have adopted the system of Sir Arthur
Evans. Nor do they differ greatly regarding the approxi-
mate dating of these. It has even been found possible,
although the local script cannot yet be read, to frame a
provisional chronological system based on the Berlin
system of minimum dating, so as to fit the story of Crete
into the history of the ancient world. Important clues
have been forthcoming in this connection. From an early
period trading relations existed between the island king-
dom and the Delta coast, and various manufactured articles
were consequently exchanged, as well as wheat and barley,
oil and skins, and other perishable goods. The discovery
in the deposits assigned to different and well-marked his-
toric phases, of Egyptian products in Crete and Cretan
products in Egypt, has made it possible for archeologists
to ascertain which periods in either country were contem-
poraneous. |

“ With the help of Egyptian synchronisms”, writes
Mr. H. R. Hall, “we know that the Minoan civilization
was nearly, if not quite, as old as the Egyptian... . If we
date the beginnings of Egyptian history about 3500 B.c.,
we have not long to wait before we find indisputable
traces of connection between Egypt and Crete.” *

Early Minoan I begins, therefore, some time after the

?

1 The Journal of Egyptian Archeology, Vol. 1, pp. 111, 112 (April, 1914),

194 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

legendary Pharaoh Mena united by conquest Upper and
Lower Egypt and founded the First Dynasty, and before
the great pyramids near Cairo were erected. About the
same period the Sumerian civilization of Babylonia was
beginning to flourish, and the Hatti tribe of the Hittite
confederacy had established itself in Anatolia.

Early Minoan II extended from about the period of
the Fourth to that of the Sixth Egyptian Dynasty: that
is from the Pyramid Age till the close of the Old King-
dom Period.

Early Minoan III covers the dark age of early Egyp-
tian history extending from the Seventh till the Eleventh
Dynasties.

Middle Minoan I commenced early in the Eleventh
Dynasty Period. Middle Minoan II flourished during
the part of the Twelfth and part of the Thirteenth Dy-
nasties; and Middle Minoan III came to an end during
the early period of the Hyksos occupation of Egypt.

The Late Minoan Period was the “Golden Age” of
Crete. It began before the Hyksos were expelled from
Egypt, and attained its highest splendour during the
Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty. During Late Minoan II,
Thothmes III of Egypt received gifts from the island
kingdom as well as from the Hittites. Late Minoan III
was an age of decline. Foreigners were in occupation of
Crete, and the mainland towns of Tiryns and Mycene
were flourishing and influential. AX gean civilization had
thus reached the Mycenzan stage. Iron was coming into
use; the sixth city of Troy had been built. It was the
Age of Homer’s heroes. At the close of the Mycenzan
period of the Afgean Age the northern conquerors of
Greece were inaugurating the Hellenic era. “The so-
called miracle of the rise of Hellenism, early in the first
millennium 8.c., is to be explained”, writes Mr. D. G,

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 195

Hogarth, “by the re-invigoration of aboriginal societies
settled for long previous ages in the A¥gean area, and
possessed of an ancient tradition and instinct of culture.
. . . This process was chiefly due to the blood and in-
fluence of an immigrant population of less impaired
vigour, which had long been cognizant of and participant
in the mid-European culture, and was itself; both in origin
and development, related to the elder society of the
7Egean area.’’*

At what period Crete began to trade with Egypt it is
as yet impossible to ascertain with certainty. Professor
Flinders Petrie? found, in the lowest levels of the temple
at Abydos, black pottery which he concluded came from
Crete on account of its close resemblance to fragments
discovered by Sir Arthur Evans in the Late Neolithic
deposits of Knossos. He also characterized as Aigean
several vases and pieces of painted pottery discovered in
tombs of the First Dynasty. He maintained further that
the Cretan and other foreign imports were brought to
Egypt in the galleys depicted on pre-Dynastic vases.

This view has not found general acceptance. It has
been urged that the galleys were ordinary Nile boats.
“ They have deck shelters”, writes Mr. Hall, “just like
the model funerary boats of the Middle Kingdom tombs,
and they carry women on board. On one vase a woman
is depicted waiting, with her hands above her head; it
may well be that they actually represent the ferry boats
of the dead. They carry purely Egyptian emblems.
Now, we know of the Egyptians that they were never
seafarers; they disliked the sea, and they held the seafaring
inhabitants of the Delta coast in abomination: it was never
the Egyptians who went to Crete in the early days or
later. . . . Finally, the boats are represented amid ostriches,

1 Ionia and the East, p. 99 (1909). 2 Abydos, Vol. II, p. 38.

196 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

oryxes, mountains, and palm-trees: that is to say, they are
sailing on the Nile with the desert hills and their denizens
on either hand.”?

All that seems certain in this connection is that ship-
ping was already well advanced in pre-Dynastic times.
There is no evidence to show whether the seafarers on
the Delta coast, or in Crete, possessed superior galleys
to those used by the navigators of the Nile. No doubt
they did. The Cretans who went to Melos for obsidian
must have found it necessary to build galleys capable of
withstanding the buffetings of wind and wave in the
fEgean Sea. In fact, the early settlers could not have
reached Crete unless they had superior craft to the pre-
historic dahabeeyahs and feluccas of the Nile. It is
possible, therefore, as Professor Flinders Petrie thinks,
that oil and skins were carried across the Mediterranean
from Crete in pre-Dynastic times, and exchanged for the
corn and beans of Egypt. But on this point the evidence
afforded by the pottery cannot be held to be conclusive.

The dark pottery with geometric designs belongs to
a class of widespread distribution. Specimens with similar
decorations, but of different texture, have been found as
far apart as Anau by the Pumpelly expeditions, which
conducted important researches in Russian and Chinese
Turkestan, at Susa, the ancient capital of Elam, in Persia,
at Hittite sites at Sakje Geuzi in North Syria, in Cappa-
docia and Boghaz’kéi, and at points in the Balkan Penin-
sula. The black pottery of pre-~Dynastic Egypt and
Neolithic Crete may, therefore, have come from Anatolia.
Some hold, indeed, that it has an ethnic significance. Mr.
Pumpelly’s view is that the Central Asian oases were the
sources of Western Asiatic culture, but the evidence he
brings forward in this connection is of somewhat slight

1 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXV., pp. 321 et seqs

‘sasodind o8e103s 10} att} BuO ye pasn ApUeplas ‘oUIzeSeUT
ay jo Aooy aug ut sSutuado oaenbs [Jews oy oe , so]]9Sey,, PY, ‘ozis any jo orev puv ereMuUdyive poyesodep Jo apeUl aie (,, toyjid ,,) sxef oy,

SOSSONM ‘SAT1IESVN ANV Suvf JO ANIZVOVIN

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 197

character and hardly justifies his theory that Egypt and
Babylonia derived their knowledge how to grow barley
and wheat, and actually received certain breeds of domes-
ticated animals, from this part of the world. As we have
seen, cattle were domesticated in southern France in the
Aurignacian period of the Palzolithic Age, before the
Fourth Glacial Epoch.

Mr. Pumpelly! has, however, demonstrated that
climatic changes which took place in the Transcaspian
oasis caused the early civilization, of which he discovered
important traces, to vanish entirely. The “Kurgans”
were buried by drifting sand, and the agriculturists and
pastoralists had therefore to migrate in search of “ fresh
woods and pastures new”. It may be that their move-
ments are indicated by the various finds of black pottery.
Communities of the wanderers may have settled in Elam
and Anatolia, and drifted into Egypt through Syria, and
towards Crete through the Balkans. Professor Elliot
Smith says that “a definitely alien strain made its appear- -
ance in the people of Egypt during the Early Dynastic
period, and left its indelible impress in their physical
traits for all time. The heterogeneous features appear in
a form so pronounced as to justify the positive assertion
that the alien element in the mixture was neither Egyptian
nor did it belong to any of the kindred peoples. It was
something quite foreign and certainly Asiatic in origin—
that variety which Von Luschan has called Armenoid.’’?
If the Anatolian “ broad-heads”’ were the distributors of
the black pottery obtained from the east, representatives
of their stock may have reached Crete as well as Egypt
before the introduction of metal-working. The evidence
obtained from graves shows that they were pressing west-

1 See also The Pulse of Asia, by Professor Huntington, a member of the staff of the
Pumpelly Expedition in Turkestan, 2 The Ancient Egyptians, pp. 95, 96.

198 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

ward into Europe long before the close of the Neolithic
Period, although not in such great numbers as in the
Copper and Bronze Ages.

Another view of the problem has been urged by Dr.
Duncan Mackenzie. He considers it probable that while
the Libyans were developing the black-topped style of
pottery “the allied Neolithic people of the AZgean, in a
wider European context, were creating the peculiar style
of black hand-polished ware typical, for that early period,
of the Aegean. Well on in this Neolithic epoch”, he
says, “must come the Egyptian-looking black-topped
ware found in the Copper Age tombs of Cyprus, whose
significance in this connection was first pointed out by
Furtwangler as being a new indication of race connection
between the Egyptian and East Mediterranean of that
period, and of a northward movement of the Libyan race
consequent upon, and caused by, the first appearance of
the Egyptians proper in the Nile land. If, as is likely,
this northward movement began before the A®gean civili-
zation had attained to such consistency in itself and such
influence outwards as could have had any definite echo in
Egypt, then we should have sufficient explanation of the
fact that of imported remains in Egypt none from the
7Egean region go back to this early period.”* The pot-
tery with geometric designs found by Professor Flinders
Petrie at Abydos may therefore have come from North
Africa.

It will thus be seen that the problem as to whether
Crete traded with Egypt in Late Neolithic and the earliest
Minoan times must be left in the realm of conjecture.
What seems certain, however, is that the island kingdom
received cultural influences directly or indirectly either
from North Africa or Anatolia at an early period in its

1 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXIII, pp. 155 et seg.

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 199
history. This could not have occurred without navigation
being well advanced. But, although such a conclusion
seems highly probable, it would be rash to build upon it
in absence of direct evidence regarding the existence of
the regular and constant exchange of commodities, and
the influence which would consequently be exercised in
the development of art. ‘ We can hardly as yet”, writes
Mr. H. R. Hall, “speak of relations between Egyptian
and /Egean Art in Neolithic days, though it is by no
means certain that such relations did not then exist, espe-
cially since there is a probability that the Avgean civiliza-
tion was ultimately derived, in far-away Neolithic times,
from that of Egypt, or rather from one of the primitive
elements that went to form Egyptian culture.”? It should
be mentioned, however, that a piece of ivory was found
in Neolithic strata at Phestos, in Crete. It may have
come from Egypt. Shells have also been discovered by
Italian archeologists in the caves of Liguria, which do not
belong to the north Mediterranean coast, but are common
along the Libyan coast. These are wave-worn and were
probably carried to Italy by early navigators, but whether
these were Neolithic or Early Minoan Cretans is uncertain.

The makers of pottery with geometric designs must
have regarded sea-washed Crete as a veritable Paradise,
whether they came from Libyan grasslands fringing yellow
desert, or the Delta region with its seasonal plagues, or
from the uplands of Anatolia where in winter the passes
are often snow-blocked. Quite a variety of climates is
offered by the picturesque island, with its great mountain
spine fretted by peaks which rise from 5000 to 8000 feet
above the sea-level, its sloping forests of pine and oak
and chestnut, and its sheltered valleys where grow the

: Fournal of Egyptian Archeology, Vol. I, p. 110, and Yournal of Hellenic Studies,
Vol. XXV, p. 337-

200. CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

olive and fig and vine. A sharp contrast is afforded by
even its northern and southern shores, especially in winter,
when the former is chilled by bleak winds from the main-
land, and the latter is as balmy as the North African coast.
During the greater part of the year the prevailing winds
blow alternately from the north-east and north-west, and
from the south-west and the south. The northern winds,
ever welcomed through the ages in Egypt, attain greatest
velocity in late winter and whiten the mountains of
Crete with the snows they retain until July, while the
currents from the south come chiefly during the months
of autumn and early winter. Easterly and westerly
breezes are invariably light and of short duration. “The
cold current rushing over the easy north slope of the
Balkan, and through the Rumelian gap, gathers force”’,
writes Mr. D. G. Hogarth,’ “as it nears the African
vacuum. Local relief shelters the Adriatic coasts, and to
some extent western Macedonia, Thessaly, and Beeotia ;
but Attica receives a full draught through the depression
between its low hills, Pentelicus and Hymettus; and the
isles, especially Crete, are scourged to such purpose that
the higher vegetation in many districts will only grow in
triangular patches to southward of sheltering rocks. The
counter-current blows off the Sahara with terrific energy
for almost as many days annually as the steppe wind; but
the high relief of Crete breaks its force from the A’gean,
‘and it is on the slopes of the White Mountains, Kedros,
Psiloriti and Lasithi, and the western coasts and isles of
Greece that it expends the most of its storms and rains.”
The north wind, however, brings more moisture to the
peninsula. But the rainfall diminishes towards the south,
till little is left to Attica or the Cyclad isles but a hard
cold current of more bracing and stimulating sort for the

1 The Nearer East, pp. 99 et seg.

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 201

healthy human frame than is found anywhere else in the
area of the Nearer East”’.

Between July and September the north-east or north-
west wind falls in the late afternoon, and then “ the over-
heated land begins to suck a current off the cooler sea—
that familiar inbat breeze which, after a short interval of
stillness following midday, sets the caiques dancing in
every Levantine harbour”. At midnight the land breeze
commences to blow seaward.

Early navigators among the isles must have soon
learned to take advantage of morning and evening breezes
as they passed from harbour to harbour with their com-
modities. In the Odyssey! the wanderer Odysseus spends
his last day among the Pheacians on the isle of Scheria

longing for the sun to set. He
to the radiant sun
Turned wistful eyes, anxious for his decline.

After supper he was escorted to the vessel-which was to
convey him to Ithaca. Ere the port was cleared he
“silent laid him down”, and when the rowers

With lusty strokes upturned the flashing waves,

His eyelids, soon, sleep, falling as a dew,

Closed fast.

All night long the vessel sped like a falcon, “swiftest of
the fowls of heaven”
The brightest star of heaven, precursor chief

Of day-spring, now arose, when at the isle
(Her voyage soon performed) the bark arrived.?

Telemachus also sails at midnight, when

blue-eyed Pallas from the west
Called forth propitious breezes; fresh they curled
The sable deep, and, sounding, swept the waves...

1 Book XIII. 2 Cowper’s translation,

202 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

A land breeze filled the canvas...
Thus all night long the galley, and till dawn,
Had brightened into day, cleared swift the flood."

In early spring navigation is perilous in the Aigean,
and even in summer winds may veer suddenly without
warning. It was a meltem or summer gale that caused
the ship on which St. Paul was being carried to Italy to
meet with disaster. The “south wind blew softly”, and
“they sailed close by Crete”.? Then arose “a tem-
pestuous wind called Euroclydon”, a hard north-eastern
which comes in violent gusts and covers the heaving bays
with sheets of foam. ‘And when the ship was caught,”
says the Biblical narrative, “and could not bear up into
the wind, we let her drive.” The me/tem was encountered
by the captain of the vessel, who paid so little heed to St.
Paul’s warning, in late autumn, when, as was wonted to
be said, “sailing was now dangerous because the fast was
now already past”’.*

Classic legends of heroes who were shipwrecked like
Odysseus, and of sea monsters and syrens, are eloquent of
the perils which the sea rovers of the A%gean confronted
with unflinching courage and increasing skill wrung from
hard experience. But as man has ever achieved greatest
progress when confronted by difficulties, the islanders be-
came the first traders on the Mediterranean. They were
- lauded for their seamanship in song and story—those
self-confident men so proud and cold, of whom the god-
dess Athene spoke to Odysseus, the wanderer, when on
the Island of Scheria:

Mark no man; question no man; for the sight
Of strangers is unusual here, and cold

1 Odyssey, Book II (Cowper’s translation), 530-53. 2 Acts, xxvii.
8 [bid., xxvii, 9. The fast was the great day of atonement in the month of Sep-
tember.

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 203

The welcome by this people shown to such.
They, trusting in swift ships, by the free grant
Of Neptune traverse his wide waters, borne
As if on wings, or with the speed of thought.

In early Minoan times Crete must have proved as
attractive to settlers as it did to traveller Lithgow in 1609,
when, describing the plain of Khania, in the north-west,
he wrote: “Trust me, I told along these rocks at one
time, and within my sight, some sixty-seven villages; but
when | entered the valley, 1 could not find a foote of
ground unmanured, save a narrow passage way wherein I
was, the olives, pomegranates, dates, figges, oranges,
lemmons, and pomi del Adamo, growing all through other,
and at the rootes of which trees grew wheate, malvasie,
muscadine, leaticke wines, grenadiers, carnobiers, mellones,
and all other sortes of fruites, and hearbes the earth can
yeld to man, that for beauty, pleasure and profit it may
easily be surnamed the garden of the whole universe, being
the goodliest plot, the diamond sparke, and the honey-
spot of all Candy (Crete). There is no land more tem-
perate for ayre, for it hath a double spring tyde; no soyle
more fertile, and therefore it is called the combat of
Bacchus and Ceres; no region or valley more hospitable,
in regard of the sea having such a noble haven cut through
its bosome, being as it were the very resting-place of
Neptune.”

The year is divided into three seasons. After the
gales and rainstorms of Winter comes in March a luxuriant
and balmy Spring, when fragrant and many-coloured wild
flowers, anciently sacred to the Earth Mother, bloom
everywhere in great profusion. Flocks and herds that
were “wintered” in the valleys are driven once again to
the uplands, where rich fresh herbage springs up in abun-

1 Odyssey, Book VII (Cowper’s translation), 39-44.
(© 808) 17

204 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

dance. Rivers and streams flash in the sunshine; torrents
leap gladly among the rocks, and the sound of falling
waters mingles with the constant hum of insects and the
songs of melodious birds. In April turtle doves are
numerous in passage; in Crete as in Egypt and Babylonia
they were associated in other days with the goddess of
love.

When the grey dusk blots out the splendour of sunset,
and the olive warblers are silenced in the olive groves, the
nightingale’s sweet “jug-jug” and clear pensive carol
ripples through the shadowy woodlands. The shepherd
who has ascended the mountain slopes to his summer
shelter does not hear the songster of night, but at dawn
he is awakened by the wise thrush which “ sings its song
twice over”, and ere long in the growing brightness his
heart rejoices to hear once again the full-throated chorus
of blackbirds and linnets and woodlarks in leafy woods,
where silent lizards come out to listen to the pipes of
Pan, where rough satyrs dance merrily, and wide-eyed
nymphs peer shyly through congregated trees and whis-
pering water reeds at the human intruders of their soli-
tudes. Higher up the slopes are scented pine-woods that
murmur in the breeze like the everlasting sea. Spring
comes slowly up this way. Beyond the forest zone the
snow retreats grudgingly, and is replaced by the bright
foliage of Alpine plants in sheltered nooks, and especially
on the southern mountain face. When the glistening
diadem of snow is robbed from Mount Ida, and no
storm-cloud comes nigh, its bald crest looms greyly across
the blue Mediterranean.

There are villages on bracing upland valleys, and in
these the present-day descendants of the ancient Cretans
lead simple and secluded lives, like the earliest pastor-
alists. Herding their flocks, they climb shelves of rasp-

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 205

ing rock, wearing the quaint skin boots with protruding
heel and toe pieces that were invented by their remote
ancestors. Hither may have come by preference many of
the booted Anatolians who were attracted to the island in
Minoan times. In midsummer, when the valleys beneath
are parched with heat, and their fields and gardens must
needs be irrigated, a temperate climate prevails on the
plateaus. The nights are cool and refreshing, and amidst
the hushed silence of the mountains the voices of men
who guard their flocks can be heard calling from great
distances through the rarefied air, when the Sphakiots,
who claim to be descendants of the Dorians, come to raid
the sheepfolds.

It is on these uplands, where Artemis still cares for
her nimble-footed herds, that the greatest activity is dis-
played in Spring-time and early Summer. In the rich
alluvial valleys the small farmers have not much else to
do than to survey their growing crops. Their fields were
ploughed and sown before the “storm season” came on,
and they secured ample nourishment from the drenching
rains. The harvest falls in May on these lower grounds,
but on the uplands it cannot be gathered in before July.
After crops are threshed and stored, the fruit is ripe for
plucking; then grape juice flows crimson from the wine
press, and sweet oil from golden olives.

In ancient times Crete yielded a rich surplus of its pro-
ducts which was available for purposes of trade. Ships
were loaded with skins and wine and oil, dried fish and
sponges, dried fruits and sacks of barley, which were bar-
tered for the commodities of other lands. The seamen
visited island after island in the AZgean sea, and they
ventured westward to Sicily; the mainland of Greece was
but a day’s journey; eastward lay the shores of Anatolia,
where the second city of Troy had rich gifts to offer in

206 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

exchange for heavy cargoes. In time Egypt attracted the
fearless mariners. It lay towards the south-east, and
when favourable winds were blowing could be reached in
the space of two or three days. They may have heard of
this rich and wonderful land on the Syrian coast, or per-
haps there were Cretan traditions regarding it. Birds that
flew thither may have guided them. In the story of
Uenuamen, the Egyptian emissary who was forced to
remain in Cyprus, that melancholy man laments, gazing
across the sea, “ Seest thou not the birds which fly, which
fly back unto Egypt? Look at them; they go unto the
cool canal. And how long do I remain abandoned here!’”*
Let us follow the island mariners to the homeland of their
ancestors, voyaging in the track of migrating birds.

In the Cretan period, Early Minoan I, is embraced
the Third Egyptian Dynasty (c. 2980-2900 B.c.). A
change had taken place in the administration of Egypt,
Pharaoh Zoser having transferred his court from the
south to Memphis, the London of the Nile Valley. He
was the builder of the first pyramid—the step pyramid of
Sakkara; and his activities extended to Sinai, whither he
sent annual expeditions to work the copper mines. Early
Cretan traders must have returned home with wonderful
stories of his great achievements. But they were doubt-
less more greatly impressed by the tireless Pharaoh Sneferu,
who did so much to strengthen and consolidate united
Egypt. He battled against Asian hordes which invaded
the Delta region, constructed roads there, and fortified
strategic points on the eastern frontier. This monarch
built great river vessels for purposes of trade and defence,
some of which were over a hundred and seventy feet
long. As he also dispatched on one occasion, as he duly
recorded, a fleet of forty ships to the Syrian coast to

1 King and Hall’s Egyptian and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Discoveries, p. 430

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 207

obtain cedars from Lebanon, it is evident that Mediter-
ranean navigation had been well advanced ere his time.
He may have been not only familiar with the achieve-
ments of Cretan mariners, but perhaps even employed
them.

Sneferu was the last king of his line. The Fourth
Dynasty (c. 2900-2750 B.c.) produced the stern and
masterful Pharaohs—Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura—
who erected the immense pyramids near Cairo. In this
Age imposing royal statues were carved from material as
hard as diorite, that of Khafra being one of the triumphs
of Egyptian art.

Direct evidence of Crete’s connection with Egypt
during this, the Old Kingdom, period is of scanty char-
acter. It is not to be wondered, however, that such
should be the case. The marvel is that any traces at all
should survive of trading relations conducted at such a
remote period.

To emphasize the importance of the few significant
finds that have enabled the Sherlock Holmeses of Arche-
ology to prove that such relations did exist, it should be
explained that after copper came into use in Egypt, fine
stone working became possible, and developed rapidly.
The invention of the copper drill enabled workmen to
construct shapely bowls, vases, jars, platters, and other
vessels of porphyry, diorite, alabaster, and other suitable
stones. Craftsmen took evident delight in their handi-
work. In one of the tomb scenes, two of them are de-
picted squatting on the ground drilling out stone vessels,
The artist imparted to their faces an expression of self-
conscious reserve which suggests that they were accus-
tomed to hear their praises sounded and took pride in
their skill. Hieroglyphics placed between the figures
record a characteristic conversation, “This is a very

208 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

beautiful vessel,” says one, and his comrade replies, “It
is, indeed.’’?

These stone vessels were in great demand, and dis-
placed in the market the rough hand-made pottery, which
consequently deteriorated in quality; evidently it was
manufactured chiefly for sale to the poorer classes, and,
as burial rites have ever been of conservative character, to
be placed in graves. The same thing happened in Crete
after the introduction of metal. There, too, stone vessels
caused much unemployment among the potters, and less
skill was displayed by those who supplied cheap vessels
of baked clay to a declining market.

It is of special interest to find in this connection that
the Cretan stone vases among Early Minoan relics show
points of resemblance to those of Egypt. The most
important evidence, however, is derived from strata of
Middle Minoan I. Some fragments of carinated bowls
belonging to this period resemble closely characteristic
Egyptian carinated bowls of the Third and Fourth
Dynasties. The Cretan vessels were made of Liparite
imported from the Lipari islands, which are situated to
the north of Sicily, and were apparently visited by the
adventurous mariners of Crete in Early Minoan times.
No doubt can remain that these Cretan bowls were copies
of Egyptian models, and these were probably carried
direct from the land of the Pharaohs.

_ The copper drill, which filled the hearts of Egyptian
potters with despair, was in time surpassed by a more
wonderful mechanical contrivance, which ultimately re-
stored the prestige and popularity of their ancient craft.
Sometime during the Fourth Dynasty, when the indus-
tries were being stimulated by the Pyramid-building
activities of the Pharaohs, and inventive minds were con-

? Breasted’s translation, 4 History of Egypt, p. 96.

(IMI'TISVA WOU)
.SLAOdS LOdVaL» YO «MVAI» HLIM SAaTdNVXd ONIGNIONI ‘XUTLLOd NVONIN ATUVA

gt

Pie,

vy

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 209

stantly directed towards the solution of difficult problems
with purpose to simplify and expedite the work of con-
struction, an ingenious craftsman produced the potter's
wheel. He was probably a citizen of busy Memphis.
As much is suggested by the fact that the new invention
was afterwards associated with Ptah, the god of that city,
and his southern form, Khnumu, of the First cataract
colony of artisans. These deities were depicted shaping
the sun and moon and the first man and woman on the
potter’s wheel. The discoveries and inventions of pious
worshippers were always attributed to the culture deity.

As the shapely products of the potter's wheel had to
be burned with more care than the old hand-made articles,
the problem of firing was solved by the introduction of
the enclosed furnace. Results were then obtained which
placed the workmanship of the stone-vessel workers in
the shade. One can imagine the proud inventor carrying
his wonderful jars and vases to the royal palace to receive
the congratulations of the Pharaoh, and perhaps a decora-
tion of which he was richly deserving.

The new pottery attained speedy and widespread
popularity. Both in Egypt and Crete the potters first
imitated the vessels of stone and metal. Indeed the
Early Minoan workers, when they decorated their produc-
tions, painted imitation rivets on the handles. The Cretan
Schnabelkannen (vase form), with “ beak spout”’, “bridge
spout’, or “ teapot spout”, had been evidently modelled
on similar copper and stone vases of the Egyptian Old
Kingdom Period. Trading relations between the Cretans
and the Nilotic peoples must therefore have been of a
direct and intimate character.

But although Crete thus borrowed from Egypt, just
as any modern country may borrow an invention from
another, its civilization maintained its strictly local char-

210 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

acter. It was because the island craftsmen had attained
a high degree of skill that they were able to adopt new
methods, and contribute to the general growth of culture.
They were not mere imitators who slavishly copied the
methods of their neighbours. Their own inventions
were in turn borrowed by others.

The study of Cretan pottery shows that its culture
was of local growth and that development was not due
merely to outside influence, although outside influences
may have at periods provided the stimulus which caused
craftsmen to produce something new and improve upon
what was being done elsewhere. The spirit of rivalry
involved has ever made for progress.

Dr. Duncan Mackenzie, who has acted as Sir Arthur
Evans’s “lieutenant” in Crete, and is “the chief authority
on Early Cretan pottery”, as Professor Burrows says,}
was the first to deal with the development of ceramic art
of the island in a manner which has thrown much light
on the growth of its civilization. The American and
Italian archeologists acknowledge freely his influence and
example as an accurate observer, and constantly refer to his
“masterly analysis’? of Knossian ceramic art. He has
woven a wonderful narrative from the collection of frag-
ments dug out of the soil, setting in order what had for
so long been confused and obscure.®

Trial pits were sunk at various points on the hill of
‘Knossos and inside the palace, with purpose to ascertain
the contents and depth of the Neolithic stratum. It was
found that the average thickness from the virgin soil
upwards was about six metres, the greatest being eight.
In the lowest layer, fragments were obtained of a “sooty
grey” pottery which had been hand-polished outside and

1 The Discoveries in Crete, p. 48.
* Fournal of Hellenic Studies, XXIII and subsequent volumes.

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 211

inside. The primitive potters made vessels of rough
shape from poorly sifted clay, which had neither necks
nor differentiated bases: there was no decoration. The
second metre yielded a similar ware, but a few fragments
were found to be ornamented with geometrical designs,
the V-shaped zigzag being either filled in with or sur-
rounded by dots. Some authorities believe that this
geometric motive is of northern origin. It appears on
Late Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery in our own country
and throughout the continent.

In the third and fourth metres a small percentage of
the fragments are incised. Then in the fifth metre appears
a new development. The incised geometric designs are
found to be filled with gypsum or chalk. Here begins
the “light on dark” ornamentation of Cretan pottery.
This style of pottery has been found in the first stratum
of Troy and also in Egypt. Whether it was imported
into the Nile Valley from Crete or Asia Minor 1s, how-
ever, uncertain. The evidence afforded indicates either
a racial drift from some cultural centre, or the existence
of commercial connections between widely separated dis-
tricts at a remote period in the Neolithic Age. The
interval represented by this stratum was of a lengthy
duration.

Another new development occurs in the fifth metre.
The commonest primitive ware, which shows gradually
improving workmanship, is no longer wholly plain. After
the vessels were polished, some of the potters began to
decorate them with waved rills which gave a rippling
aspect to the surface. This style of ornamentation in-
creased in popularity during the period represented by
the sixth metre, and was not only effected on the out-
sides of vessels, but also inside the jutting rims.

We now approach the close of the Neolithic Period.

212 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

The pottery increases in quantity, and among the new
forms which appear are cups which are evidently the
prototypes of the Kamares vessels of a later age.

In the seventh metre we are in the period of transi-
tion between the Stone and Bronze Ages. It comes up
to the level of the floor of the first Knossian palace, and
as the ground was levelled before this building was
erected, the eighth metre of the Early Minoan Period
appears to have been swept away. Fragments of it may
have become mixed with those in the seventh stratum.

The seventh metre is of special interest because it
contains the earliest specimens of painted ware. The
potters who ornamented their vessels with white-filled
geometric incised designs, began to paint them instead.
This departure opened up endless possibilities of develop-
ment. At first the early zigzags were imitated, but in
time new decorative motives evolved, and then came a
free use of various colours, with variations of “light
on dark” and “dark on light” designs. Varnish was also
used to give a more lustrous surface than was obtained by
hand-polishing. This early painted and varnished ware
was hand-made. In the Latest Neolithic Period, however,
the clay was finely sifted and well baked. Instead of being
dark, like the earlier productions, it was of a bright brick-
red colour. Apparently the enclosed furnace had come
into use in Crete before the introduction of the potter’s
“wheel. It was when the potters succeeded in baking
this red ware that the “dark on light” designs came into
use.

At Phestos similar results were forthcoming from a
pit sunk below the palace floor. The hill had been levelled
prior to the erection of the palace, and only 54 metres of
the strata remained. “I was able”, writes Mosso, who
conducted this excavation, “to confirm the result of Dr,

(6gz—Lgz saded ‘JyX JaydeyD ul uoiydisosap [[NJ 29S)

VHGVIUL VIHOV LV GNNOd (ANOLS) «dSVA UALSTAYVH» AHL

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 213

Mackenzie’s investigation of the black pottery upon the
virgin soil being plain. A little higher appears pottery
with decoration of punctured dots and lines. In a later
period the decoration of the pottery becomes more com-
plex; imitation of basket-work is found, and the deeply
incised lines are filled with white chalk. The vases
become more elegant, and have decoration in white on a
black ground. This pottery is identical with that found
in the Troad and in Sicily.” *

When Cretan pottery attained its highest development
in the Middle Minoan Period, it found a ready market in
Egypt, which never produced ware so richly coloured or
elaborately ornamented. In another direction the Cretans
also surpassed their teachers. This was in the carving of
vessels of stone. The island craftsmen began by imitating
Nilotic forms, but used a softer material which allowed
their artists freer play. The greatest surviving triumph
of Cretan decoration on stone is the so-called Harvester
vase from Aghia Triadha, near Phestos. With consum-
mate skill the artist depicted upon it a procession of men
marching four deep, who are evidently taking part in
some ceremony. One of the figures holds in his right
hand an Egyptian sistrum, and is followed by a number
of lusty singers. The drawing is entirely devoid of
Egyptian conventionalism, and possesses a degree of
naturalism which is typically Cretan. It is a spirited im-
pression of an emotional group of human beings, and
strikes quite a modern note. These stone vases were
manufactured in Crete long after the new pottery had dis-
placed stone and metal vessels as articles of everyday use.
It is believed they were covered with thin layers of gold,
and could have been purchased only by wealthy persons.

Another direct connection between Egypt and Crete

1 Palaces of Crete, p. 25.

214 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

is the button seal. It came into use in Crete during the
Early Minoan II and II] Periods. Mr. H. R. Hall
thinks it passed from the island to the Nile valley, where
the cylinder seal had long been the popular form. Sir
Arthur Evans, on the other hand, is inclined to regard it
as being of Delta origin. Be that as it may, there can be
no doubt it is a relic of direct trade oversea between the
two peoples.

The interesting problem here arises: By what route
did the Cretans navigate their vessels to the Egyptian
coast? One view is that they sailed across the open sea
to the Libyan coast and the Delta, and another that their
route was along the Asiatic coast by Cyprus. Mr. H. R.
Hall has pointed out in this connection that the Mediter-
ranean tribes “who attacked Egypt in the reign of
Rameses III actually did take the longer route”. He
grants that single ships might have directly crossed the
sea, but says that “the probability remains that the longer
and safer route was the original one by which connection
was first established, and that it was not until the approxi-
mate position of either Egypt or Sicily was well known
that the direct route could be first dared’’.

It is probable that the Cretan mariners first came into
touch with the coast population of Egypt, who were known
as the Haau, that is, “fen men” or “swamp men”. They
were a seafaring folk, and were regarded by the Dynastic
Egyptians as aliens. The magical spells of the “ Book of
the Dead” were forbidden to them. About the time of
the Sixth Dynasty references are made to the Ha-nebu,
which meant “all the northerners”. In the Eighteenth
Dynasty it was applied to signify the Anatolians and the
inhabitants of Greece. The early Cretans may have been
called the Ha-nebu also. A more direct and later term

1 The Annual of the British School at Athens, VII, pp. 157-8.

CRETAN CULTURE AND COMMERCE 215

applied to them was the Keftiv. Maspero has suggested
that Kefiiu signified the people and Kefti the land. Accord-
ing to Hall, Kei is the same expression as Ke/ti, “signi-
fying ‘at the back of’, or ‘behind’; je. the land Keftiu
was the ‘hinterland’, the ‘Back of Beyond’ to the Egyp-
tians”.! In the Bible Crete is referred to as Caphtor.

Figures of the Keftiu in Egyptian tombs of the Empire
Period are typically Cretan, with wasp waists and girdle
and Minoan kilt, and hair falling over the shoulders in
pleated tails. They carry vessels of Cretan shape with
characteristic decorations. Towards the end of the
Eighteenth Dynasty the racial designation Keftiu drops
out of use, and names of tribes are given. By that time
the island had been overrun by conquerors from the main-
land who sacked and destroyed the palaces and overthrew
the Knossian Dynasty.

1 The Annual of the British School at Athens, VIII, pp. 159-60.

CHAPTER.
Trading Relations with Troy

Obsidian Finds in Troy—Early Shipping Traffic—Copper Age in Cyprus
-—Doubt about Crete— Transition from Stone to Bronze in ‘Troy — Was
Copper first worked in Egypt ?—The Oldest Bronze Articles—Bronze manu-
factured in Crete—Probable Sources of Tin Supply—A Visit to Troy—Homeric
Memories—The Nine Cities at Hissarlik—The First and Second Citadels of
Troy—Hand-made and Wheel-made Pottery—Symbolic Decorations—Trojan
Eye Symbol on Yorkshire Relic—The Mother-goddess—Treasure of Priam
and a Cretan Hoard—Engravings of Ships with Sails—Cretan and Egyptian
Jewellery—Silver Cup and Silver Bowls—Homeric References—A®gean Influ-
ence on Anatolian Coast—The Inland Hittite, Power—Ethnics of Anatolia—
Danubian Cultural Area—Troy’s Connections with Thrace—Ancient Conflicts
on Plain of Troy—Problem of the Jade Trafic—European Jade Objects not
all imported—Crete and the European Trade Routes—Distribution of the
Developed Spiral.

Tue influence of /Xgean culture, which assumed its spe-
cific character in Crete, extended as far distant as Troad,
that strip of north-western Anatolian coastland which
came under the sway of the Trojans. “In the Early
Minoan period ‘Crete’”’, writes Mr. and Mrs. Hawes,}
“was in contact with Egypt on the one hand and with
Aiissarlik (Troy) and the Cyclades on the other—pupil of
the former, teacher of the latter.” It is possible that
Troy’s earliest connection with Crete goes back to the
Neolithic Period, for finds have been made in the stratum
of the first city of flakes and small artifacts of obsidian.
This highly-prized stone was probably carried over the
sea from Melos rather than along an overland trade route

from Sinai.
1 Crete, the Forerunner of Greece, p. 19.
216

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 217

It would appear that there was a certain amount of
regular shipping traffic on the A®gean Sea in Neolithic
times. Crete, as we have seen, imported obsidian from
Melos long before the introduction of metal working.
The beginnings of the trade can be traced at Magasa,
where the flakes were found to be associated with an
extremely crude pottery of great antiquity, and it was well
developed apparently during the later stage of Neolithic
culture, to which the obsidian knives from Knossos are
assigned. It is unlikely that Melos was uninhabited when
obsidian was first worked there. Ultimately its people
exchanged it for marble from Paros, which was utilized to
shape rough amulets or figurines of the mother goddess.
But, so far, except for the evidence afforded by these finds
of obsidian, no other indications that the Cycladic islands
were occupied during the Neolithic Age have been forth-
coming. Stone weapons have, however, been found in
southern Greece and on the large island of Eubcea.
Some of these are so small that they seem to have been
charms, or votive objects, rather than real weapons. The
Fégean Neolithic folk were evidently a peaceful people,
and it may be that island communities utilized wood freely
for implements of daily use. Wooden hand ploughs and
wooden bowls were used in the Scottish Hebrides until
a comparatively recent date, and the Egyptian peasants
carried staves to drive their herds, and found them sufhi-
cient for purposes of defence.

The early peoples who reached Crete probably came
by way of the Cyclades, either from the Anatolian or
Grecian coasts. Before they accomplished this feat, the
art of navigation must have advanced considerably. If it
is held, on the other hand, that they passed direct oversea
from Cyprus or Libya, we must conclude that they were
skilled mariners who possessed well-equipped vessels and

218 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

were quite capable of conducting a sea traffic from the
very beginning. Perhaps when the Cretan inscriptions
can be read some light will be thrown on this aspect of
the problem.

Among the isles, Crete, with its long record of human
activity, was ever prominent in promoting commercial
intercourse, and as mercantile enterprise was the principal
factor in its development, Troy was probably reached by
its wind-bronzed and adventurous mariners, who, having
familiarized themselves with the “swan ways” of the
Cyclades, undertook the exploration of the eastern and
western shores of the AXgean Sea, gaining knowledge of
prominent landmarks like Mount Athos and the massive
mountain ridge of Samothrace.

Traffic by the sea, as well as by the land routes, must
have been greatly stimulated after the knowledge of how
to work metals became widespread. Ships could then be
constructed more stoutly and with greater celerity, and
must consequently have increased in number. Pharaoh
Sneferu’s order for a new fleet of forty odd vessels to
convey timber from Pheenicia is an interesting example of
the manner in which ambitious monarchs might strive for
mercantile supremacy. No doubt it was in consequence
of the growing competition that experienced seafarers
made voyages of exploration and opened up new routes
in all directions. Malta, as we have seen, received obsidian
from Melos; it also imported jade, which probably came
from Anatolia, Jade was carried as well to Sicily, and as
the Cretans imported liparite from the Lipari islands, after
they had established a connection with Egypt, it was
probably by them that jade objects were distributed west-
ward.

It is uncertain when Cyprus was first visited by the
Cretan mariners, The Neolithic relics of that island are

SEA-TRADERS FROM CRETE

From the painting by John Duncan, A.R.S.A.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 219

notably scanty, and some think it was not occupied prior
to the age of metals, as it is devoid of Neolithic strata.
No doubt the earliest Cypriotes, who settled in the eastern
river valleys, came from the Syrian coast. Their pottery
was hand-made, and ornamented with incised designs, and
compares more closely to Anatolian than pre-Dynastic
Egyptian or Cretan varieties. The island had its Copper
Age, and towards the close of it wheel-made pottery was
manufactured.

It is held by some authorities, including Myers and
Hall, that copper was first worked in Cyprus. If such
was the case, it is remarkable that the island has not
yielded traces of early commercial connections with Crete
and Egypt. “Up to the present,” says Mosso, “there
is no evidence that copper was worked in the Isle of
Cyprus before it was used in Egypt and Crete. . . . The
word Cyprus comes from the name of the plant «zpos,
which is the henna (Lawsonia inermis), used for dyeing
the nails red.” Cypriote copper blades are of later date
than those found in Crete, and the earliest flat axe of
copper is of Egyptian Neolithic form

There can be no doubt that Cyprus had a Copper
Age before the Age of Bronze. The same cannot be
said with certainty, however, regarding Crete. Copper
weapons have been found in tombs, but they are small
and of votive character, and the larger ones, of which they
were copies, were perhaps of bronze. The few copper
dagger blades that have been unearthed are difficult to
place, and the view has been urged that bronze is as old
in Crete as copper. The island of Minos “shows”

d

1 Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, Pp. 299 ef seg.

* Those who favour the Cypriote origin of copper-working urge that the earliest
Egyptian copper artifacts are copies of those of Cyprus. It can be shown, on the other
hand, that some of the Egyptian copper artifacts are copies of Neolithic forms.

(0 808 ) 18

220 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Mrs. Hawes says, “ the same phenomenon as Hissarlik,'
the sudden appearance of bronze at a date not later
than 2500 B.c. On the evidence at present available
no Copper Age can be predicated for the island 3.2.
The natural conclusion is that Crete knew nothing of
copper until it knew tin also and the superiority of the
alloy. This knowledge must have come through the
extension of trade relations, not by conquest, for no
country shows more independence in its metal series than
Crete..’*

Whence was the bronze obtained by the Cretans?
Was it from Egypt or Anatolia? Both Crete and Troy
were able soon after the dawn of their Bronze Ages to
import silver, which during the Old Kingdom Period was
rarer than gold in Egypt. The silver may have come
from the same region as tin. One possible source of
supplies of silver was Cilicia, where silver mines are still
worked; the other was Spain, in which country evidence
has been forthcoming of early commercial relations with
Crete:

Once the secret of how to work metals passed from
centre to centre of Neolithic culture, the ingenuity ex-
pended for long Ages in the shaping of artifacts of flint,
_ obsidian, and jade was directed into new and inspiring
channels. Cretans, Trojans, Cilicians, and Cappadocians
alike may have been stimulated to inaugurate a new era
by foreign influences, but they did not remain as slavish
imitators. The pupil not only strove to excel the teacher,
but even to surpass him. As in our own day a new
invention may be improved by a people who have
borrowed it, so at the dawn of the Metal Age the bor-

1 Schliemann was wrong in asserting that Hissarlik (Troy) had a Copper Age.
2 Gournia, Mrs. Hawes and Others, p. 33. (American Exploration Society, Phila-
delphia, 1908.)

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 221

rowers appear to have contributed towards the develop-
ment of a discovery which was to revolutionize the ancient
world, A®gean Bronze Age culture has distinctive features
which establish its independent character. It was not of
sporadic development. The indigenous influences which
were manifested during the lengthy Neolithic Age were
not cut off by the importation of metal, but were rather
given opportunity to achieve freer and more brilliant
growth in every sphere of human activity. That being
so, we are confronted by an exceedingly difficult pro-
blem when we seek to discover whence either Crete or
Troy imported bronze, or the copper and tin with which
to manufacture it. The influences exercised by local
cultures tend to conceal the sources from which borrow-
ings were made.

Copper was known in Egypt in pre-Dynastic times.
Indeed, some authorities hold that it first came into use in
that country. “It was the custom of the proto-Egyptian
women, and possibly at times of the men also,” says
Professor Elliot Smith, “to use the crude copper ore,
malachite, as the ingredient of a face paint; and for long
ages before the metal copper was known, this cosmetic
had been an article of daily use. It is quite certain that
such circumstances as these were the predisposing factors
in the accidental discovery of the metal. For on some
occasion a fragment of malachite, or the cosmetic paste
prepared from it, dropped by chance into a charcoal fire,
would have provided the bead of metallic copper and the
germ of the idea that began to transform the world more
than sixty centuries ago.” At first copper was used for
small ornaments and then to make needles, one end of a
copper wire being bent down to form an “eye”. In time,
chisels and axes and other implements were manufactured
in imitation of those of stone which were in use. “ Every

222 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

stage in the history and evolution of the working of
copper”, he holds, “is represented in Egypt, and is pre-
served under circumstances that enable us to appreciate in
some measure the motives which led the Egyptians on,
step by step, to the full realization of the immensity of
the power they had thus acquired.”* Professor Elliot
Smith follows Dr. Reisner in this connection.’

Others hold that copper was first worked in Asia.
Professor Myers, as we have indicated, favours Cyprus.’
Mr. Hall, who supports the view that the knowledge of
corn passed from Palestine to Egypt and Babylonia, thinks
that the knowledge of metal may have come from the
same quarter, Sinai, Syria and Cyprus being “ the original
focus of the distribution of copper over Europe and the
Near East. Copper came gradually into use among the
prehistoric Southern Egyptians towards the end of the pre-
dynastic age. And they must have obtained this know-
ledge of it from the Northerners.” Mr. Hall adds:
“Dr. Reisner considers the Egyptian evidence alone, and
not in connection with that from the rest of the Levant”’.*

It is also contended that the manufacture of bronze
was not an Egyptian invention, and that Troy and Crete
were probably in touch with the centre where copper was
first hardened by tin and antimony. Mr. Hall suggests
that this art “came from the Middle East, where tin is
found, to Greece, as well as Babylonia and, eventually, to
Egypt”.® Babylonia, like Cyprus, had a long Copper
Age.

No direct proof has yet been forthcoming, however,
that Egypt imported its first bronze implements. The
fact cannot be overlooked that the oldest bronze relics yet

1 The Ancient Egyptians, pp. 3 et seq.

2 Prehistoric Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der, Vol. 1, p. 134+

3 Science Progress, 1896, p. 347.

4 The Ancient History of the Near East, pp. 89 et seq. (1913-) 5 Ibid. p. 33-

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 223

found come from the Nile valley. No discovery has yet
been made that bronze was manufactured elsewhere prior
to 3000 B.c. A few objects of bronze have been found
in First Dynasty tombs. Maspero gave Angelo Mosso
a piece of metal plate from an Abydos tomb to analyse.
The test showed “copper 96.00 and tin 3.75 per cent”’.?
Another important relic is the famous “bronze rod of
Medum”, which belongs to the Third Dynasty period.
It was found embedded in the fillings of a mastaba associ-
ated with the pyramid of King Sneferu. Pure copper was
also used extensively throughout Egypt for the manufac-
ture of weapons and implements from pre-Dynastic times
till the Twelfth Dynasty. Iron was known at an early
period, and is referred to in the Pyramid texts. It pro-
bably had a religious significance.

The Egyptians may have received their earliest sup-
plies of copper from Sinai, which they visited to obtain
turquoise in the Neolithic Age. We know that expedi-
tions were sent to work in the copper mines in that region
at a later period (Third Dynasty). Whence was the tin
obtained to harden the copper? A possible source of
supply is North-western Arabia. That it could be found
there is suggested by the Biblical reference to the spoils
taken by Moses from the Midianites, which included
“the gold and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin and
the lead”. Another possible source is Anatolia, where
tin is said to exist. The raiders against whom Pharaoh
Sneferu of the Third Dynasty waged war on the Delta
frontier may have come down an ancient trade route,
having ascertained that rich plunder could be obtained in
Egypt. There is also tin in Italy as well as copper, but
the earliest copper weapons found in that country are of

1 Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, p. 57. 2 Tbid., p. 59-
3 Numbers, xxxi, 22.

224 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

advanced Cretan type (Middle Minoan). Local forms
which have been found are not of earlier date.

It may be that Egypt’s scanty supplies of tin during
the Old Kingdom Age came from more than one source.
Mr. W. M. Muller sees on a Sixth Dynasty relief “AEgeans
bearing tin into Egypt”. If the figures referred to are
ZEgeans, they were certainly Cretans. It is of special
interest to find in dealing with Egypt’s early imports of
metal that a socketed bronze hoe of the Sixth Dynasty
resembles examples from Cyprus and South Russia which
are preserved in the British Museum. This artifact may
have come down the sea trade route by which sporadic
supplies of tin and bronze were carried. The manufac-
ture of bronze in Egypt never assumed great dimensions,
on account of the difficulty experienced in obtaining tin,
prior to the Twelfth Dynasty. Its early Metal Age was
mainly a Copper one.

After the mariners of Crete began to bring home sup-
plies of bronze, its traders no doubt did their utmost to
acquire the secret of how to manufacture it. It may be
that, like Solomon, who sent Hiram of Tyre annual sup-
plies of wheat and oil in return for timber from Lebanon
and skilled workers in metal,’ a Cretan monarch made
arrangements with an Egyptian or Anatolian Hiram to
send him artisans who were skilled in the manufacture of
bronze.

One of the places in Crete where bronze was cast
was a headland on the Gulf of Mirabello about three
miles east of Gournia. An ancient copper mine there is
called by the peasants “ Chrysocamino”’, which signifies
“the oven of gold” or “the golden furnace”. Describ-
ing it, Dr. Hazzidaki writes: “The seashore rises for
above 100 metres, and here is the cave with so small an

1 Kings, v, 1-12, and vii, 14 ef seq.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 225

entrance that one has to go down and creep in on hands
and knees. The cave is 52 metres long, the roof is
irregular in height, about 2 metres near the entrance, that
is, 2 metres from it, and in the middle it reaches a height
of 20 metres, and at the far end it is 12 metres high.
The walls and roof are covered with stalactites, and the
rock is calcareous. Great blocks of stone have fallen from
above, especially at the far end of the cave.” Small
fragments of primitive pottery of uncertain date were
found in the cave, and also pieces of Middle Minoan
times.

Smelting operations were carried on near the entrance
of the cave, as is indicated by a piece of crucible found by
Dr. Hazzidaki. Inside, pieces of scoria were picked up.
The copper appears to have been entirely worked out.’
Specimens of rock taken from a cliff in the vicinity have
yielded a small percentage of copper.

Bronze was also cast in Gournia. This is proved
“by the finding of scraps of bronze and slag, pure copper
adhering to smelting vessels, a crucible pot for carrying
a charge of metal, and by numerous stone moulds, into
which the molten metal was run for making knives, nails,
awls and chisels”. Copper was used for the manufacture
of bowls, jars, and other utensils, but “ weapons were of
bronze, containing as much as ten per cent alloy with
copper”. Copper daggers with an extremely small per-
centage of tin have also been found.

But although copper could be found in Crete, the tin,
as has been indicated, had to be imported. “By the
beginning of the Bronze Age”,’ writes Dr. Mackenzie in
this connection, “the valley of the Rhone must have
played a dominant role of communication between the

1 The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, pp. 289-91.
2 Crete the Forerunner of Greece, pp» 289-91- 8 C. 2800 B.C.

226 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

great world of the Mediterranean and the north; by that
time it was probably already the high continental trade
route towards the tin mines of Britain.” Angelo Mosso
also favours the hypothesis that Crete’s early supplies
came from England. ‘“ We know the road”, he says,
“followed by the caravans bringing English tin through
France to the mouth of the Rhone at the end of the
Neolithic period, while no trace of any trade in tin has so
far been discovered in the East.’’? Mosso’s reference to
the “‘ East” applies to “the mountains of China where
tin is found”.

Mrs. Hawes, who favours a Nearer Eastern source,
writes as follows: “When the Pumpelly expedition
returned from Turkestan in 1904, one of the members
brought potsherds indistinguishable at first sight from the
brilliantly mottled ware found at Vasiliki during the same
season. . . . The strong likeness between the two fabrics,
of which the writer has personal knowledge from having
handled them together, is more reasonably explained by
intercourse than by accident. Moreover, Dr. Hubert
Schmidt, who accompanied the expedition, reports that a
neighbouring tumulus (near the large one in which the
pottery was found) gave him a three-sided seal-stone of
Middle Minoan type, engraved with Minoan designs—
man, lion, steer, and griffin. How shall we explain those
evidences of AMgean influence in Southern Turkestan?
They must be brought in line with other proofs of
contact.”

This distinguished lady archeologist refutes Dr.
Muller’s view that the A2geans who carried tin into Egypt
obtained their supplies from a trade route that connected
Central Germany with the sea coast. ‘The backwardness
of Europe in learning to employ metal”, she says, “is

1 The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, pp. 62-3.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 227
undeniable.” - Hungary, like Cyprus, had a Copper Age

before bronze became known. ‘“ We see”, she writes,
“that at c. 2500 B.c. Asia Minor shared with the A’gean
the knowledge of bronze, whereas three centuries later
Europe was still in the Stone Age. . . . As further ex-
planation of the priority of bronze in Asia Minor, we
may now suggest the probability that, long before tin was
discovered in Europe, it was being brought overland
through Asia Minor, and also by way of Transcaucasia
and the Black Sea from distant Khorassan, Strabo’s
Drangiana, where its presence has been confirmed. Exca-
vations at Elizabethpol in Transcaucasia have revealed a
culture in early contact with the Aégean.”* She thinks
that carriers “ not unlike the swift Scythians of Herodotus,
frequented both the tin-producing region south-east of
the Caspian and the copper region of the Danube at an
early date”’.”

Troy was a probable “clearing house” of the early tin
and bronze trade. We should therefore visit it before
dealing with AZgean commercial connections with Western
Europe.

Our course is a north-eastern one across the island-
strewn Aigean Sea. This way went the Homeric Achzans
who fought for the possession of Helen, the heiress of the
Spartan throne, and no doubt with desire also to expand
their area of political influence in the interests of com-
merce. We cast anchor as we draw near the southern
shore at the mouth of the Hellespont. Since the dawn
of history myriads of vessels have passed beyond this
point to navigate the narrow strait, the modern Darda-
nelles, that leads towards the Sea of Marmora and the great
Black Sea beyond it.

1 Mrs, Hawes refers in this connection to E. Réssler, Zerts. f. Ethnol.. XXXVII, 1905,
PP- 114 ef seg. 2 Gourniay Pp» 33+

228 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

The famous Troad lies before us. It is a country which
does not make much appeal nowadays, but must have
offered many attractions to early settlers. The valleys
are suitable for agriculture; there is excellent herbage
on the hillsides for flocks and herds, and an abundance
of game among the mountains. During winter the south
winds from the Mediterranean impart to it a milder
climate than prevails in the Balkans, or the uplands of
Phrygia, and the summer heat is tempered by the cool
Etesian winds. Water is plentiful; there are numerous
springs and generous rivers flowing from the mountains.
Withal there is an abundance of timber, much good clay
for brick-making, and an endless supply of limestone with
which to erect dwellings and strong, high walls to protect
citizens and their domesticated animals against the attacks
of bears and lions and cunning wolves that prowl through
the forests and up and down the green valleys, not to
speak of human enemies.

We land at the mouth of the famous river Scamander,
turning our backs on the unpicturesque tongue of Euro-
pean land known to the ancients as Chersonesus, and in
our day as the peninsula of Gallipoli; we also take our
eyes from the shouldering hills of the island of Imbros,
behind which towers sublime Mount Saoce, the loftiest
peak of Samothrace, on which the god Poseidon aforetime
sat to watch the Homeric heroes performing mighty feats
of arms.

Our steps are directed inland, and we proceed to cross
the long and windy Plain of Troy, remembering

Old unhappy far-off things
And battles long ago.

Yonder towards the south-east, blue above the ridges of
woody hills, is the Anatolian range of Mount Ida, which

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 229

forms a noble frontier of the Troad; there Paris was once
a shepherd; thither, too, fled Aineas after Troy fell. To
the west is the high coastland of the Aigean Sea, and east-
ward and north-eastward are broken groups of featureless
mountains divided by pleasant valleys. Less than 4 miles
in front of us we can distinguish a boat-shaped hillock, on
the spur of a sloping hill, rising abruptly from the plain:
that is famous Hissarlik, the site of the ruins of the
various citadels of Troy.

The memoried plain is bordered on either side by the
Rivers Simceis and Scamander. There are marshes to
avoid, as in Homer’s time, but these are easily detected
at their utmost limits by the clumps of long grasses and
weeds, and of whispering tamarisks which also fringe the
steep and crumbling river banks.

The Simeeis has shrunk to a few inches in depth, for
it is now late summer ; puffs of wind blow clay dust from
its clay-caked and stone-strewn bed. Down a beautiful
valley it flows westward, as if to cross the plain towards
the AXgean Sea, until it curves round a ridge of hills and
directs its course to the shore of the Hellespont. The
more famous Scamander is about 2 feet deep and about
20 feet in breadth. When, however, the snows are melt-
ing on the Ida range it is exceedingly turbulent, and of
such great volume that it carries down trees and boulders,
and occasionally overflows its reedy banks to submerge the
plain. The Simceis similarly rages furiously at this period.

There is an interesting reference in the J/ad to the
sudden rise of the rivers after a “cloud burst”. When
Achilles drove one part of the Trojan army into the city
and another into the Scamander,

the plain he found
All flooded o’er, and, floating, armour fair,
And many a corpse of men in battle slain,

230 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

The Scamander was supposed to be increasing for the
express purpose of resisting his advance. ‘The roar of its
spring flood resounds in the sonorous hexameters of
Homer, but sinks to a spray-like hiss in an English trans-

lation.

Rearing high
His crested wave, to Simoeis thus he? cried:
“ Dear brother, aid me with united force
This mortal’s course to check; he, unrestrained,
Will royal Priam’s city soon destroy.
Nor will the Trojans his assault endure.
Haste to the rescue then, and from their source
Fill all thy stream, and all thy channels swell;
Rouse thy big waves, and roll a torrent down
Of logs and stones, to whelm this man of might.” ?

We reach Hissarlik and ascend it to survey a maze
of ruins. The fields around us were tilled and irrigated
aforetime, when there were watchmen on the “topless
towers” to give warning of the approach of raiders.
These keen-eyed men could see far up the valleys; nor
could vessels cross the Hellespont without their know-
ledge; and they had glimpses to the west, across the
Scamander, of the AZgean Sea, which is but 34 miles
distant, and were thus able to herald the approach of the
galleys of Crete.

Before Schliemann began to excavate on this wonder-
ful hillock, by cutting a deep broad trench through the
various strata, it towered about 160 feet above the level
of the plain; but when the earliest Neolithic people first
chose it as a settlement, it was not much more than 50 feet
high. Distinct traces survive of nine cities in all, the
latest being the Troy of the Roman Age. Each city,
after the first, had been erected on the levelled debris of

1 Scamander. 2 Iliad, Book XXI (Derby’s translation), 340 e7 seg.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 231

the previous one. So the hill, like a stooping giant,
gathered from age to age an increasing burden for its
great unwearied back.

Troy I was built in the Neolithic Age. Its deposit
of from 12 to 14 feet indicates that it endured for many
long centuries. Portions of its walls constructed of small
stones, here and there in herring-bone pattern, were laid
bare by Schliemann. As the foundations, in some parts,
do not reach the bedrock, it is evident that the hillock
was occupied for a considerable period before stone was
utilized for building purposes. The earliest defensive
works may have been ramparts of earth.

Hissarlik was apparently from the earliest period the
citadel of the city which lay round it on the plain. Here
dwelt, in a palace, the king and his family, and here alsa
were stored the treasure and winter food-supply of the
tribe. When enemies poured down the mountain passes,
or across the Hellespont from Europe, the citadel became
a shelter for women and children, and for flocks and herds.
Inside its walls, too, the warriors found safe retreat when
attacked by overwhelming numbers. The hill forts and
brochs of Scotland appear to have served a similar purpose.

Within the area of Troy’s Neolithic citadel traces
survive of the stone foundations of houses and of certain
erections usually referred to as “sheep-folds”. Of special
interest are the remains of pottery which have come to
light. The fragments unearthed by Schliemann were of
the hand-made variety, and these are numerous and varied
enough to show that the Trojan ceramic art was developed
locally and attained a comparatively high degree of excel-
lence. Invariably the pottery is dark and decorated with
geometric designs, the incisions being filled in with white
chalk as in Crete and Egypt. AQ fine surface finish was
effected by the use of the smoothing-stone.

232 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Doubt has been expressed as to whether all the
bronze implements which Schliemann associated with this
early stratum really belong to it. Some of these may
have fallen down the sides of his trench, and got mixed
up with the relics of a deposit with which they had origi-
nally no connection. It appears certain, however, that the
Neolithic city was in existence at the dawn of the Metal
Age in Crete, for some of the bronze implements in
question are unlike those found in later strata.

The second city was erected before 2500 B.c. Whether
or not there was a fresh racial infusion we have, as yet,
no means of knowing. It is significant to find in this
connection that there are distinct traces of development
from the Neolithic period, especially in the ceramic relics,
a sure indication that a considerable portion of the old
stock remained. For the first time the hillock was levelled,
a process which no doubt obliterated much valuable evi-
dence, and it then stood about 100 feet above the sea-
level. Retaining stone walls, which sloped inward, were
also erected, and those round the south-western and
western sides of the eminence can still be traced.

This was the city which Schliemann believed to be
Homer’s Troy, because it contained a great amount of
burnt debris. But in this he. was mistaken. Shortly
before he died, however, he found some Mycenzan pot-
sherds which afforded a clue to the mystery and enabled
Dr. Dorpfeld, the distinguished German archeologist,
who conducted subsequent excavations, to locate Homer’s
city in the sixth stratum.

Dr. Dérpfeld has divided the history of the second
stratum into three periods. ‘These may be referred to as
Troy II a, 8, c. The citadel of Troy II a, was little
more than a tribal fortress about 100 yards in diameter.
There were two main entrance gates, one on the south-

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 233

western side and the other on the southern. The pottery
which was manufactured resembled the hand-made variety
of the Neolithic settlement, but the workmanship dis-
played was on the whole inferior. Apparently we meet
here with the decadent period during which vessels of
stone were being constructed with the use of copper drills.

In the Stratum II 8B the new pottery makes its appear-
ance. The Egyptian potter’s wheel had evidently reached
Troy as well as Crete, while the enclosed baking-furnace
also came into use. There can be no doubt, therefore,
that a brisk trade was being conducted along the trade
routes both by land and sea. Considerable progress was
effected also in architectural work, brick as well as stone
being largely used.

The evidence of Stratum II c shows that the citizens
of Troy were progressing by leaps and bounds. Traces
of destruction by fire of earlier buildings suggest that
frequent conflicts were waged round the fortress, and it is
possible, therefore, that the extensions and alterations which
were effected from time to time were rendered necessary
to maintain the prestige of the city in stirring and difficult
times, when hordes of nomads were enabled by the acqui-
sition of metal weapons to overrun large portions of terri-
tory.

It was during the period covered by the deposits of
the second city of Troy that the great masses of Asiatic
pastoral nomads pressed into Europe and conquered the
more passive and more highly-cultured agriculturists of
the Mediterranean race. As much is indicated by the
burial remains of the Early Bronze Age in Europe, which
show that a broad-headed people pressed westward, first
along the uplands and then across the valleys, in increasing
numbers, here adopting the funerary customs of their
predecessors, and there introducing their own.

234 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Troy continued to develop its own civilization, resist-
ing, it would appear, for a long period the raids of
plundering barbarians. That its wheel-made pottery was
not imported is made evident by its distinctly local charac-
teristics. The hand-made jars, with side projections, pierced
for suspension, which were characteristic of Stratum I] a,
assumed more artistic character in Stratum II 8B, when the
wheel came into use. Another link between earlier and
later times is the “face urn”. These interesting Trojan
products indicate that the decoration of pottery may have
had a mythological significance. Zigzag, St. Andrew’s
Cross, herring-bone, and V-shaped designs, as well as
rippling lines, ‘trickle ornaments”, and dots, may there-
fore have meant much to the people who believed that
their food-supply was the gift of a deity, or group of
deities, whose favours they constantly invoked by per-
forming ceremonies and offering sacrifices. In the Odyssey
the Phzacians toasted the deity when they drank together.
King Alcinous, addressing his guests after Odysseus had
partaken of his meal, spoke as follows:—

Pontonotis! mingling wine, bear it around
To ev’ry guest in turn, that we may pour
To thunder-bearer Jove (Zeus) .

When, at length,
All had libation made, and were sufficed,
Departing to his house, each sought repose.!

Food and drinking vessels may have been dedicated to
deities as well as the potter’s wheel, which, as has been
indicated, was credited to the god Ptah in Egypt. The
spirit of the god, or of one of his emissaries, may have
been in the cup. It is of interest, therefore, to find that
the lips of some of the Troy vessels are ornamented with

1 Book VII (Cowper’s translation).

Key of the Treasure Chest

20

GENERAL VIEW OF “THE TREASURE OF PRIAM”
(From the photograph by Schliemann in “Atlas Trojanischer Alterthiimer” )

[he topmost row shows the Golden Diadems, Fillet, Ear-rings, arid small Jewels. Second row—
Silver ‘‘ Talents” and Vessels of Silver and Gold. Third row—Silver Vases and curious Plate
Fourth row—Weapons and Helmet-crests of Copper or Bronze. On floor—Vessel,

of Copper.
Caldron, and Shield (all copper).

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 235

circles enclosing dots. One characteristic fragment shows
two circles with a straight line drawn down between them.
It is obvious that the potter desired to represent a face
with staring eyes. Schliemann believed that the face was
intended for that of an owl, and constantly made reference
to “owl-headed” vases. Another fragment, however,
shows clearly that the crude artistic efforts were directed
towards the representation of the human face. No attempt
was made to indicate the nose line, but the eyes were
fairly well shaped, and above these the eyebrows were
drawn also. In other examples the eyebrows and nose
were shaped like a bird in flight, the eyes being represented
by perforated circles, while a straight line represented the
mouth.

This tendency towards realism is found to be less
pronounced, however, as the vessels become of more
complicated and finer construction. The arched eyebrow,
the eyes and ears, yield to purely decorative tendencies,
and become symbols, as do also the dots, rings, and cones
representing female breasts; the swastika on the lower
part of the body is evidently a fertility symbol. This
process of developing symbols from natural objects can be
traced even in the Paleolithic Age. It does not follow,
however, that the change robbed the ornaments entirely
of their religious and magical character, difficult as it may
be to discover where a symbol is divested of significance
and a purely artistic motive begins.

The Trojan method of representing the human face,
with the bird-wing-shaped nose and eyebrows and the
eye dots, is paralleled by similar designs on objects from
the Greek islands. Interesting examples of the same
artistic motive have been found in the East Riding of
Yorkshire. In a trench surrounding a burial cairn on

Folkton Wold were discovered chalk drums associated
(Co 808) 19

236 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

with unburnt burials. These are ornamented with spirals,
St. Andrew’s Cross, and other characteristic Aigean de-
signs, and also with the eyebrows and eye symbols. As
the latter appear on standing-stones of the Marne and
Gard valleys in France, and on early Bronze Age vessels
in Spain, it may be that the chalk drums are interesting
survivals of racial or cultural influence which reached
these islands across the English Channel by way of
Spain.

The second stratum of Troy is remarkable for its
treasure hoards. Schliemann found no fewer than seven-
teen of these. The most famous is the “ royal treasure’,
or, as he called it, “the treasure of Priam”, which, with
the assistance of his wife, he concealed during the work-
men’s dinner-hour. ‘The objects were of rich and varied
character. In a silver jar had been stored two great
diadems of elaborate construction, which were worn by
females of high rank. One is composed of four rows of
small heart-shaped leaves of gold connected with fine wire,
and is fringed with a row of larger pendants suggesting
the human form. On either side are tails, terminating
with larger pendants in a bunch. This diadem is about
the breadth of the forehead, and when clasped round the
head the hair was bunched above it, while the tails fell
downwards and lay on the shoulders. Elaborate ear-rings
were also worn, as well as rich necklaces made of small
gold rings strung together, and bracelets of twisted gold.
Some of the ear-rings are of spiral design. The spiral is
also associated with the rosette to ornament elaborate gold
hairpins and broad bracelets. A small gold eagle-shaped
ornament is of special interest, as it indicates the sanctity
with which that bird was invested in this region.

Included in the hoard are several bars of silver, which

1 British Museum Bronze Age Guide, pp. 89-91.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 237

may, as Schliemann suggested, have been used for money.
A silver dagger was no doubt a royal weapon used on
occasions of great ceremony. Like the bronze daggers it
was pierced so as to hold the rivet with which it was
attached to the handle. One dagger handle is carved in
ivory and is reminiscent of Paleolithic Magdalenian Art,
for it is shaped to represent a crouched animal. A bronze
handle of similar design has been discovered in Etruria,
and is now in the Kestner Museum at Hanover.

Among the objects in lead, special reference should be
made to a figurine of the mother-goddess. It is of some-
what conventional design, like the terra-cotta figurines
found in Cyprus, Mesopotamia, and Greece, and those of
marble and other stone in the Cycladic islands. The face
is stern, with a hard drooping mouth, and the eyes stare
cold and angrily. Long curls dangle down from the ears;
the neck is exaggerated and crossed with symbolic mark-
ings, and the hands are clasped across the breast. The
female characteristics are pronounced, and on the lower
part of the body the swastika, or hooked cross, is depicted
on a V-shaped projection surrounded by round bosses.
The legs are merely suggested, and may have been used
as a handle, or as a spike to be thrust into the soil of a
holy mound. Votive figurines found at Anau in Turke-
stan, and those also from Sumeria, were attached to nails,
or terminated like nails, so as apparently to be driven into
sacred shrines, for the same reason as the visitors to
sacred wells drop pins into them, or attach rags to over-
hanging trees. Prayer-nailing still obtains in the East.

It may be remarked here that the third, fourth, and
fifth citadels of Troy, which cover a period between about
2000 B.c. and 1500 B.c., are of no great account. The
city shrank in importance after the occurrence of a great
disaster which is indicated by the fire-swept remains of

238 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Stratum II c. The sixth, or Homeric Troy, will be re-
ferred to in a subsequent chapter.

Since Schliemann’s day, attempts have been made to
relegate the “treasure of Priam” to a comparatively late
period, one nearer Troy VI than Troy lla. Indeed, it
has been asserted that this rich hoard fell down the trench
from the sixth city stratum. But although Schliemann
sometimes nodded, like Homer, his location of the trea-
sure can no longer be disputed. In 1908, Mr. Seager,
the American archzologist, discovered a similar hoard on
the island of Mochlos, which lies about two hundred yards
off the north-eastern coast of Crete in the picturesque
Gulf of Mirabello. For some 4500 years the treasure
had reposed in a necropolis of the Early Minoan Period,
happily secure from the attentions of generations of tomb
robbers. The island is barren and without a water supply,
and was consequently never suspected of containing any-
thing of value. At one time it may have been part of a
peninsula which sheltered a natural harbour much fre-
quented by the earliest mariners.

The hoard included gold diadems, rings, pendants,
hairpins, and fine chains, “as beautifully wrought”, Sir
Arthur Evans has remarked, “as the best Alexandrian
fabrics of the beginning of our era”.* There were no
spiral designs as at Troy, but wonderful artificial leaves
_ and flowers. Of special interest are the gold bands “ with
engraved repoussé eyes for the protective blind-folding of
the dead”. These, Sir Arthur suggests, were “the distant
anticipations of the gold masks of the Mycenz graves”.
Bead necklaces were probably charms. Associated with
these articles were miniature stone vases of local material.
Some were of Early Egyptian form, and all were of ex-
quisite workmanship.

1 Times, 27th August, 1908.

21
GROUP OF JEWELS FROM THE HOARD DISCOVERED IN THE
ISLAND OF MOCHLOS

(See page 238)

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 239

An engraving on a ring in this hoard depicts a ship
with a sail and a full equipment of oars. Troy may have
been visited by the men who crossed the seas in vessels of
this kind. Traces of Cretan commerce have been forth-
coming at Hissarlik, and Trojan artifacts have been found
in Crete. In 1909 discovery was made at Phaestos of a
fragment of pottery which resembles fragments of the
same date (Early Minoan IJ) found in the second city of
Troy. Relics of Cretan connections with Troy have also
been found at Vasiliki and other eastern sites.

Crete’s reputation for metal-working was widespread
among the ancients, but no one dreamed, before Mr.
Seager made his important discovery, it was of such great
antiquity. The remarkable technique displayed shows
that the craft had a long history. It no doubt owed
something to Egypt, if, indeed, it was not established on
the island by Egyptian traders. “Of the jewelry worn
by the Pharaoh and his nobles, in the Old Kingdom,”
writes Professor Breasted, “almost nothing has survived,
but the reliefs in the tomb chapels often depict the gold-
smith at his work, and his descendants in the Middle
Kingdom have left works which show that the taste and
cunning of the first dynasty had developed without cessa-
tion in the Old Kingdom.”* The Cretan ornaments have
distinct local characteristics. Like the painters and potters,
the goldsmiths showed a distinct feeling for nature, as in
their leaf and flower designs; one notable ornament is the
Cretan equal-limbed cross. Of special interest, too, is a
clover-leaf ornament—an anticipation of the Irish devo-
tion to the shamrock.

At the time the articles in the Mochlos hoard were
manufactured, there must have been many wealthy men
in Crete. Those whose ships visited Troy and Spain

1A History of Egypt, Pp» 94

240 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

were probably the possessors of articles of silver as well
as gold. But none of these have been discovered. Per-
haps some of the Early Minoan silver artifacts were so
highly prized that they were kept as heirlooms. Dr.
Xanthondides found two silver daggers in a tomb at
Kumasa, near Gortyna, while excavating tombs of the
Early Minoan III Period. They were ribbed and of tri-
angular shape, like other daggers of bronze. Associated
with these metal objects were steatite “libation vases”, a
rough marble figure of the mother-goddess, three minia-
ture vases with lids on a reel-shaped stand, and an earthen-
ware vessel of teapot shape with geometric ornamentation.
Sir Arthur Evans discovered several silver bowls of the
Middle Minoan Age at Knossos. Among the finds of
the American archzologists at Gournia is a shapely silver
cup with handles, from a house tomb, which recalls
Homer’s reference to “a silver cup, the work of the
Sidonians”.1 It is, however, of much greater antiquity
than anything which can be credited to the Phoenicians.
Perhaps it was won by the individual in whose grave it lay
for displaying skill as a boxer. A double silver cup was
awarded to the Homeric athlete Epeius, who “ knocked
out”? Euryalus at the funeral games that followed the
burning of Patroclos.? Joseph,> who was so greatly
honoured by the Pharaoh, was the possessor of a silver
cup, and must therefore have been wealthy as well as
influential.

The Cretans may have received their supplies of silver
from Troy, where, as is shown by the articles made from
that metal in “Priam’s treasure”, it was abundant enough.

Some hold that this silver came from Spain, and their
theory will be dealt with later in this chapter. Others
favour the view that the Trojans and Cretans imported it

1 Odyssey, IV, 618. * Iliad, XXIII, 741 et seg. 5 Genesis, xliv, 2,

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 241

from Lydia or Cilicia. It is possible that silver was
obtainable by the island mariners at primitive commercial
centres at or near Miletus, Ephesus, or Pitane. But of
this there is no direct proof. The remarkable fact has
to be given recognition in this connection that no traces
of early A®gean trade have been found at any of these
points. Even the islands of Samos, Chios, and Mitylene
have failed to yield any indications of commercial con-
nections with Crete and the Cyclades during the Early
Bronze Age. “Except for their north-western corner”,
writes Mr. Hogarth, “the Asiatic coasts of the A®gean
lay, until very late, outside the culture-area associated
with the name of that sea. But if ’tis true, ’tis strange !
Why did the Cretan and other A’gean sea-rovers, whether
pirates or merchants, or both, fail to settle on these par-
ticular coasts and isles? They had pushed their wares
into Hissarlik, and had filled all the opposite shores of
Europe with a culture much higher and more vigorous
than any which has left a contemporary trace in Ana-
tolia.” Mr. Hogarth believes that “there must have
been some strong continental power dominating all the
west-central coast of Asia Minor from an inland capital.
It must have been a non-maritime power, careless about
developing its coast lands, but careful to keep others away
from them.” This power was the Hittite—the confedera-
tion of peoples controlled by the Hatti, the “white Syrians”
of Greek tradition, whose ancient capital was situated at
Boghaz’kéi. It is possible that the early A®gean influ-

1 Mrs. Hawes suggests that “the objects given in exchange by the Cretans for Euro-
pean products were of as inferior and ephemeral character as those with which modern
traders dupe the native; hence the phenomenon noted by Burrows (The Discoveries in
Crete, p. 190) that genuine Agean articles are absent from districts where ®gean influ-
ence is undeniable” (Gournia, p.10). Asia Minor may haye received chiefly supplies of
wine and food-stuffs. Pharaoh Meneptah of the XIX Dynasty sent shiploads of grain
to the Hittites in time of famine (4 History of Egypt, Professor Breasted, p. 465).

242 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

ences which permeated Anatolia were introduced through
the medium of Troy.

Troy appears to have existed during the Late Stone
and Early Bronze Ages as the capital of an independent
state. Its earliest settlers were probably of the Mediter-
ranean race, and congeners of the Neolithic folk of Thrace
and the Danube area, who had pressed northward through
Syria and round the southern Anatolian coast, or by way
of the “Cilician gates”’, to the western shores of the A’gean
Sea, afterwards crossing into Europe. This racial move-
ment, which radiated also throughout the agricultural
valleys of Anatolia, appears to have taken place before
the broad-headed Hatti, who were a pastoral people,
became the dominant race. It may be also that there
survived among the mountains descendants of the ancient
Paleolithic races. ‘The Etruscans, for instance, whose
racial affinities are obscure, are believed to have come
from Anatolia.

The Danubian cultural area was of wide extent. It
included part of southern Russia and part of south-
western Austria, the whole of Thrace and Macedonia,
and a portion of Thessaly. At several centres a high
form of Neolithic culture was developed. ‘There is
reason to believe”, writes Mr. Hogarth in this connection,
“ that some population, racially kin to that which developed
the Aégean culture, was present on the Anatolian coasts
from early times, and also that there had been very early
passage of influences, and perhaps of peoples, from Bal-
kanic Europe to Asia Minor. Not only has the earliest
sub-Neolithic stratum at Hissarlik produced pottery and
weapons closely resembling those of Neolithic Danubian
graves, but at two other places where sub-Neolithic
settlements have been explored in north-west Asia Minor,
Danubian analogies are even more certainly to be re-

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 243

marked. Those places are Boz Eyuk in Central Phrygia,
and Yortan in Mysia. The vases of the latter site, where
there is a cemetery of the earliest Bronze Age, show close
analogies with Cypriote forms, and suggest that the ear-
liest migrants from Europe spread sporadically far down
through the peninsula to the Levant.” *

Like Anatolia, the Danubian area was a melting-pot
of races. In addition to the Armenoids of Hatti type
who invariably clung to an upland habitat, but also fused
in localities with the Mediterranean peoples, the fair
northern peoples pressed southward to absorb the local
culture and fuse with the earliest settlers. The ethnic
friction which resulted caused periodic migrations of dis-
placed peoples. There was, therefore, much crossing and
re-crossing of the Hellespont and the Bosphorus in the
Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Periods.

Troy, by reason of its situation, must have been ever
a meeting ground of various ethnic elements. Many
desperate conflicts, no doubt, were waged on its windy
plain long ages before the Homeric era. There were
rich spoils besides in its citadel to attract the invader. It
lies at the end of the northern trade route which runs
through Anatolia towards Mesopotamia, and must ever
have been a “market-place” for traders, who could
exchange there their far-carried commodities for the pro-
ducts of Thrace and the A‘gean.

Various axes of green and white jade, which Schliemann
found in the stratum of the first city, may be relics of an
ancient trading connection with the east, as the knives
and arrow-heads of obsidian appear to be of a connection
with the Cyclades.

When the jade objects were first found they caused a
flutter in archeological circles. It was pointed out that

1 Ionia and the East, p. 58,

244 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

scrapers and other articles made of jade had been found
associated with the Swiss lake-dwellings, and at Neolithic
sites in Brittany and in Ireland, as well as elsewhere
throughout Europe. The belief obtained generally that
these jade artifacts were imported into Europe from the
borders of China, and Professor Fischer expressed the
wish “that before the end of his life the fortune might
be allotted to him of finding out what people brought
them to Europe”. Professor Max Muller believed that
the jade-carrying immigrants were the Aryans. “If”, he
wrote, “the Aryan settlers could carry with them into
Europe so ponderous a tool as their language, without
chipping or clipping a single facet, there is nothing so
very surprising in their having carried along, and carefully
preserved from generation to generation, so handy and so
valuable an instrument as a scraper or a knife, made of a
substance which is aere perennius.”?

It is not now believed, however, that all the jade
objects found in Europe came from “a common far-distant
home in the Kuen Luen Mountains”. Since Miller
connected his Aryans with jade, the two species of it,
nephrite (jade proper) and jadeite, have been found in
different parts of Europe. Nephrite has been discovered
in Silesia, Austria, and North Germany, and it is believed
to exist in Sweden, while jadeite, or a similar rock, was
found not long since among the Alps. It is probable,
therefore, that the Swiss and other scrapers were chipped
from pebbles of jade picked up by the European Neolithic
people. The quantity and quality of the Hissarlik axes,
however, suggest an eastern source of supply, and it may
be that these and the Maltese polished axe pendants of
jade are genuine relics of primitive commerce. As the
latter were charms, it would appear that the magical qual-

? Schliemann’s Ilios, p. 242. * Letter to Times, Dec, 18th, 1879.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 245

ities of jade were given recognition at a remote period.
Among the Greeks it was the “kidney stone”, and among
the Spaniards, who imported it from Mexico, the “colic
stone”. Various rare stones were believed by the ancient
peoples to have curative qualities. Instances could be cited
of the possession, by representatives of ancient families at
the present day, of stone charms of this kind that have
long been treasured as heirlooms.

Although archeologists are less inclined nowadays
than they were a generation ago to believe in the exist-
ence of Neolithic trade-routes which extended from the
borders of China to Brittany, or to connect certain races
with relics of similar character found in widely separated
districts, there can be little doubt regarding the exist-
ence of commercial relations between different cultural
areas. The introduction of metal appears to have done
much to stimulate international trade. In the Early
Bronze Age the influence of the Aigean, which may have
“inspired every stage of culture” at Hissarlik, as Mr.
Hogarth suggests, appears to have penetrated Thrace.
Evidence has been forthcoming that two main trade-
routes crossed Germany, one from the head of the
Adriatic, and the other from the lower Danube valley.
It has been suggested that some of the amber found in
Crete came down these trade routes from the Baltic.’
France was similarly crossed by the Rhone valley trade-
route, down which, in time, tin from Cornwall was
carried. ‘That the Cretans were the earliest seafarers to
come into direct touch with these routes is suggested by
various interesting links of evidence. The most remark-
able are the Egyptian glass beads found in South Ger-
many, and the Egyptian blue-glaze beads taken from
ancient graves on Salisbury Plain, which will be dealt

1 Much of the Cretan amber is evidently from the Adriatic,

/

246 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

with in a later chapter, as they are connected with the
Late Minoan Period.

Certain Continental archeologists incline to the belief
that not only Crete but even Egypt was in direct touch
with Western Europe at an extremely remote period.
Summarizing their views, Angelo Mosso writes: ‘“ The
vases found at Amerejo in Spain have the characteristic
form of the Egyptian vases of the close of the Neolithic
Age. The resemblance of the Egyptian idols with those
of Crete and the Continent is an established fact; the
burial sites are similar; the flat copper axes of Egypt
cannot be distinguished from those of the Continent;
the evolution of art in Southern France and in Spain
went on during the Neolithic Age, and we know that
navigation was general on the Mediterranean in the times
preceding the introduction of copper—all these data give
good reason to suppose that the pre-Dynastic Egyptians
had relations with the west which enabled them to procure
cassiterite, which when mixed with copper rendered it
harder. . . . We hope”, he adds, “that new discoveries
may throw light on the relations of Egypt with Eng-
land."

There can be little doubt that the Cretan mariners
sailed westward as far as the coast of Spain, although the
precise period at which they first undertook voyages in
this direction may remain uncertain. Spain could supply
silver, copper, and other metals. The brothers Siret*
are of opinion that this country was the source of the
earliest supplies of silver, the metal having been taken
from the silver-bearing veins before the discovery was
made how to extract it from lead as described by Pliny. ®

1 The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, p. 62.
? Les premiers ages du metal, H. & L., Siret, p, 227,
3 Nat, History, XXXII, 31.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 247

Mosso favours the view that the silver articles found in
Crete were made from silver carried from Spain by the
early mariners who sailed westward to fetch tin from
the Cassiterides Islands. He makes no reference to the
Cilician mines."

It is difficult to fix the movements of the early traders
in chronological order. We cannot therefore ascertain
from the archeological evidence available when the Cretans
came into touch with the western Iberians, with whom
they appatently shared a culture of common origin. Prior
to the Bronze Age a comparatively high civilization was
developing in southern Spain. The votive figures found
in this region resemble those of Cyprus, Hissarlik, Crete,
and the Cyclades; even the sacral horns were given
recognition. Spanish Early Bronze Age artifacts also
show close resemblances to Aegean forms, and the brothers
Siret found in several places in Spain goblets similar to
those taken from Early Minoan strata in Crete, and
others from the tombs of Abydos in Egypt. These
vessels were associated with flat copper axes and copper
knives with silver rivets, as well as stone and bone im-
plements. Tin appears to have been less plentiful at
the period to which these finds belong than silver. It
may have come from the Balearic Islands, Brittany, or
England—the first named being the most probable source.

At Marseilles, where Greek merchants established
themselves in later times, the visits of the Cretans must
have stimulated trade along the Rhone valley route,
which became gradually suffused with AXgean influences.
The trade-route from the head of the Adriatic, leading
towards the Brenner Pass, was similarly affected. Sicily
and Italy have yielded suggestive evidence of early con-
tact with Crete. Daggers and flat axes of Cretan shape

1 Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, pp. 372-3:

248 GRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

have been found in Italian tombs of the early metal age.
Sardinia appears to have been visited also; it has yielded,
among other things, specimens of characteristic A®gean
axe adzes, which have also been found at Troy.

One of the most interesting links between A‘gean,
Trojan, Danubian, and Western European cultures is
the spiral decoration, which appears to have been intro-
duced along the trade-routes.

“The developed spiral”, writes Mr. Hall, “appears
suddenly in Egyptian art on seals and (rarely) in paint-
ing, at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty, or shortly
before,” that is, “at the end of the Third Early Minoan,
or beginning of the First Middle Minoan Period in
Crete.”? It appears to have been introduced into Egypt
from Crete, for it occurs on objects of Early Minoan II
and III date. There are spirals on the Trojan gold pins
of “Priam’s treasure”. Mr. Hall favours the view of
Much, the German archeologist, that “the spiral origi-
nated in metal wirework”. He thinks it may have been
“an invention of early gold workers in Lydia that reached
Troy, was in the Cyclades translated into stone carving,
in Crete transferred to pottery and to the designs of
button seals, and as a seal design came to Egypt, where
it was promptly adopted as the characteristic decoration
of the new form of seal that had as suddenly become
popular in the Nile land, the scarab”.®

The spiral ornament travelled along the trade-routes
through Europe. Rings made of silver wire twisted in a
spiral have been found by the brothers Siret in Spanish
tombs which have yielded the goblets of Cretan form,
already referred to. In the Danubian cultural area the
spiral occurs on pottery of the early metal age. Follow-

1C, 2000 B.C. 2 Or Middle Minoan II, according to Hawes.
3 The Fournal of Egyptian Archeology, Part LU, pp. 115, 116,

DECORATIVE MCTIFS AND SYMBOLS

Figs. 1 to 8. Minoan and Celtic patterns compared. The treatment in different areas of motifs,
which were probably of common origin, is of special interest. Numbers 7 and 8 are identical.
Fig. 9. The equal-limbed Cretan cross. Fig. ro. The swashtika symbol—cross with arms bent.
Figs. 11 and 12. Celtic knot developed from swashtika by connecting points of bent arms by
curves—single treatment (point to point) init and double treatment with swashtika reversed
(inner curves corner to elbow and outer curves point to point) in 12. Figs. 13 to 17. Religious
Symbols, perhaps connected with belief in weapon spirits; 13, Shield and crossed arrows of
Egypto-Libyan goddess Neith; 14, Mycenean 8-form shield as symbol; 15, Cretan deity on
seal: 16, Scoto-Celtic ‘‘spectacle” symbol shown upright as on standing stone; 17, Scoto-Celtic
“crescent and arrow” symbol.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 249

ing the road along the Moldau and the Elbe, it reached
the shores of Jutland, and ultimately passed into Scandi-
navia. It reached England either along the Rhone or
Danube valley routes. Reference has been made to the
Yorkshire chalk drums on which it was inscribed. The
New Grange stones are decorated with it, and early Scot-
tish sculptured stones show local adaptations of the design.
Eastward from the Danubian area it penetrated as far as
Koban in Russian Armenia, between the Caspian and
Black Seas, where it occurs on objects taken from a pre-
historic cemetery in which Babylonian influence is also in
evidence.

The earliest connection between Crete and northern
Europe is indicated by the finds of Baltic amber in Early
Minoan strata. It probably had a religious significance.
Amber was carried down the Elbe and Moldau route as
well as through the Rhone valley to the shores of the
Mediterranean, and across to England, Scotland, and Ire-
land. It is believed that this trade was flourishing along
the Elbe route before 2000 B.c.

The manner in which early commerce was conducted
between the peoples of northern and southern Europe is
indicated by Herodotus, who refers to offerings sent to
Delos by the Hyperboreans. “They” (the Delians), he
wrote, “declare that certain offerings, packed in wheaten
straw, were brought from the country of the Hyperboreans
into Scythia, and that the Scythians received them and
passed them on to their neighbours upon the west, who
continued to pass them on until they reached the Adriatic.
From hence they were sent southward, and when they
came to Greece, were received first of all by the Do-
donzans. Thence they descended to the Maliac Gulf,
from which they were carried from city to city, till they
came at length to Carystus. The Carystians took them

250 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

over to Tenos, without stopping at Andros; and the
Tenians brought them finally to Delos.’

Reference has been made to the engraving of a ship
on a ring from the Mochlos hoard. It is shown sailing
from the shrine of the mother-goddess, who evidently
protected seamen as well as landsmen. A similar ship,
carrying two sails as well as oars, was depicted on a seal
stone of steatite, which also belongs to the Early Minoan
Period. Two crescent moons above the mast seem to
indicate that the voyage was to extend over a couple of
months.

Other seal engravings show vessels with one, two, or
even three masts. Some have complex riggings and well-
braced yards. A seal from Mirabello shows a one-masted
vessel with a square sail.2 An ivory model of a ship found
by Sir Arthur Evans in a tomb at Knossos has a hatch
over its hold to protect the cargo. Terra-cotta and
alabaster models were discovered at Aghia Triadha, near
Phestos, by the Italian archeologists. A terra-cotta model
from Palaikastro belongs to the Early Minoan Age.

“The modern vessels of the Cretan fishermen, and
especially those of the fishers for sponges from the Isle
of Kalimnos, differ little”, writes Angelo Mosso, “ from
the ships of antiquity.”* Occasionally Maltese boats are
found to have the Horus eye on the prow, like the ancient
Egyptian boats of the dead found in tombs. Beside the
eye a flag is sometimes painted. There were ensigns on
the prows of pre-Dynastic Nilotic vessels. Neolithic ships
carved on rocks in Upper Egypt had sails and oars like
the Cretan vessels, which they resemble in shape. Maltese
boats retain the high prows of the prehistoric ships, and

1 Herodotus, IV, 33.
2 Probably “ white sails and twisted ropes of ox-hide” (Odyssey, II, 425-6).
8 Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, p. 280.

TRADING RELATIONS WITH TROY 251

Italian cargo boats have oar helms similar to those of the
Egyptian river vessels. Seafarers have ever been intensely
conservative. Some of the curious superstitions that still
prevail among them may be as old as the pre-Dynastic
pottery of Egypt and the maritime seal stones of Crete.
Early Minoan sailors may have whistled to conjure the
wind spirit, like our own fisherfolks, as they steered
between the rocky isles of the AEgean Sea, or struck out
boldly now westward to Sicily, and anon eastward towards
Cyprus and the Syrian coast.

(0 808) 20

CHAPTER XI

Life in the Little Towns

Local Cultures—Power of Rulers limited—The Town of Gournia: its
West-end Palace and Villas and East-end Workmen’s Houses—Glimpses of
Industrial and Domestic Life —The Public Shrine for Goddess Worship —
Vasiliki Remains—A Strategic Key—Pottery Links with Turkestan and Spain
—The Country of the Eteocretans—Port Sitia and Petras—The Seaport Town
of Palaikastro—The “Fair Havens” of Paul—An Important Sanctuary—Fire
Offerings—Costumes of Human Figurines—Ladies’ Fashions—Their Big Hats
and Elaborate Gowns—Theories regarding Fire Ceremonials—Fire Customs
in Britain—Zakro’s Port of Safety—Citadel and Merchants’ Houses—Presos
and the “True Cretans”—Mingling of Races in Crete.

Aut portions of Crete were not affected similarly during
the Early Minoan Period by the progress achieved by its
pioneers of civilization and the cultural influences that
swept to and from the island shores northward and south-
ward like the seasonal air currents. Indeed, the rural
communities of the high plateaux and deep mountain
gorges, especially in the west, were hardly touched at all,
and followed as primitive ways of life as do their descen-
dants at the present day. “It is still possible on the
mountain sides, where the crop is scanty, to see’’, write
Mr. and Mrs. Hawes, “men and women plucking the
corn.”! This simple method of harvesting obtains also
on the isolated Hebridean island of St. Kilda.

Nor did the shoreland seats of Cretan progress advance
on precisely the same lines. Each had its local culture, its
groups of artisans and traders, and, perhaps, its indepen-

1 Crete the Forerunner of Greece, p. 37+
252

LIFE IN THE LITTLE TOWNS 253

dent chief or king. Like early Egypt and Babylonia, the
island appears to have been divided into a number of
petty states. These may have occasionally waged war one
against another before an early Minos established a central
government at Knossos and codified the laws, as did
Hammurabi the Great. Indeed, it is generally believed
among archzologists that some of the disasters, like the
burning of towns and palaces, which are still traceable on
the island, were due to local wars.

It is of interest to find in this connection that in
Plato’s story of the “Lost Atlantis” references are made
to island chiefs. These dignitaries owed allegiance to the
king, whose powers, however, were limited by the constitu-
tion. When the people celebrated their annual festival,
at which a bull was captured and sacrificed, “they poured
libations down on the fire, and swore to do justice accord-
ing to the laws on the column, to punish anyone who had
previously transgressed them, and, besides that, never
afterwards willingly to transgress the inscribed laws, nor
ever to rule, or obey any ruler governing otherwise than
according to his father’s laws”. There were ten chiefs at
this ceremonial. “They did not allow the king authority
to put to death any of his kinsmen, unless approved of
by more than half of the ten.”! Here we have, in contrast
to Oriental autocracies, a system of government which is
of distinctly European character. The king, like his
subjects, had to act in accordance with the laws of the
state. Apparently the stone benches in the “throne
room” of the palace of Knossos were occupied by men
whose status was defined in the constitution. We should
perhaps, therefore, recognize this interesting apartment as
the meeting-place of Europe’s first Parliament.

One or two industrial and trading towns sprang up in

1 The Critias, Section XV.

254 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Crete which appear to have been, if not entirely indepen-
dent of Knossos, at anyrate sufficiently so to ensure their
development. A group of these were situated on the
“tail” of Crete formed by the Gulf of Mirabello, and
embraced by the modern provinces of Hierapetra and
Sitia. This part of the island is approached from Knossos
and Phestos through twisting valleys among the Lasithi
mountains, where there are many passes which could be
held by small forces against large armies. The isthmus
narrows to only 8 miles between the Gulf of Mirabello
and the modern town of Hierapetra, and several small
river valleys penetrate to the central uplands from either
shore. The mountain spine of Crete is divided by the
longest of these valleys, which is followed by the modern
road between Hierapetra and Kavasi. To the east a
rugged mountain range protects the frontier of Sitia,
dominated by the peak of Aphendis Kavusi, which rises
to a height of 4829 feet above the sea-level. Sitia is the
ancient country of Eteocretans, who were believed by the
Greeks to be the earliest settlers on the island.

In a little valley called Gournia, because of its trough-
like shape, which opens on the Gulf of Muirabello, dis-
covery was made by Mrs. Hawes, then Miss Harriet
Boyd, the distinguished American archeologist, of the
ruins of a compact little town. It is picturesquely situated
on a limestone ridge, about a quarter of a mile from the
sea beach. AA little river flows past through cultivatable
land, and wild carob trees surround it. The shoreland is
rugged and rocky, with many murmurous creeks, and
across the gulf, which narrows here like a Highland loch,
are long rolling hills with here a hollowing curve and
there an aspiring peak.

Gournia, like other Cretan towns, was unfortified. It
had very narrow streets which were paved, and some were

LIFE IN THE LITTLE TOWNS 255

bd

“cursed streets of stairs”, as Byron sang of Malta, The
two longest central thoroughfares ran north and south,
and these were approached from west and east by ascend-
ing streets, those on the east side being the steepest. A
spacious oblong public court—the public “ park””—opened
from the south, and above it on the western slope was the
little palace with doors opening on the streets, and elbowed
by private houses like a noble cathedral in a modern town.
The “west end” was evidently the fashionable part of
ancient Gournia. A little beyond the palace, a narrow
street leading eastward from the western main thorough-
fare, slopes upward towards the public shrine of the
mother-goddess. The large eastern wing of the town
was the most populous and thickly built.

An excellent idea of what the houses were like is
obtained from a series of enamelled plaques discovered by
Sir Arthur Evans in a basement chamber of the palace of
Knossos. These apparently were once part of an elaborate
mosaic. The artists took pride in depicting a variety of
houses, and happily paid sufficient attention to minute
details, so as to convey to us across a gap over thirty
centuries an excellent idea of the methods of construction,
and to a certain degree the habits of life of the occupants.
All the roofs were flat, but some were surmounted by
small attics erected in the centre, which gave the square
buildings an ink-bottle shape. The houses vary from
two to four stories in height. Their aspect is somewhat
modern. Single windows had four panes, and double
windows from two to six. “The red pigment in the
windows of the mosaic”, writes Sir Arthur Evans,’ “sug-
gests that some substitute for window glass was’ in use—
perhaps oiled and scarlet-tinted parchment.” But all
windows were not thus covered. Some were quite open,

1 Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. VIII, p. 14 et seg.

256 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

and in certain instances the windows of a second story
had scarlet filling, while those of the third had none.
“The upper door-like windows,” Sir Arthur says, “recall
a feature repeated in some of the miniature wall paintings.
In these, groups of ladies are seen standing in similar
openings, as upon a balcony. In other cases the women
seem to be seated at open windows of a more usual type,
and in one instance there is visible a part of a curtain,
apparently of light material, perhaps drawn at night as a
protection against mosquitoes.”

One type of house has a single door; another has two
doors like a modern semi-detached villa. In cases where
no doors are shown, the gables or backs of houses may be
represented. ‘Tenements are suggested by plain erections,
with what appear to be outside stairs ascending from base-
ment to roof. Towers, perhaps watch-towers, are also
represented. Some buildings appear to have been con-
structed of stone in the rectangular method, others with
rubble strengthened by horizontal beams; in many cases,
too, the ends are shown on a villa front of round beams,
which supported the roof and the floors.

In Gournia the earlier and poorer houses had loose
walls of small stones set thinly in clay. Improved methods
of construction can be traced stage by stage until the
masonry resembles the “Cyclopean” style, which appa-
rently was of northern origin. Lime, plaster, and clay
were used for facing walls. Upper stories, as a rule, were
of brick, supported by timber.

This interesting town was entirely destroyed by fire
about 1500 B.c. “The conflagration”, writes Mrs. Hawes,
“left proof of its strength in many parts of the excava-
tions. Wooden steps and posts were entirely burned
away, leaving deposits of charcoal and marks of smoke
grime; bricks were baked bright red, Ina ground-floor

LIFE. IN THE LITILE TOWNS 257

room of the palace lay a large tree-trunk, which had sup-
ported an upper floor or roof, completely charred through,
but retaining its original shape; the central hall of the
palace was choked with such timbers. Limestone was
calcined, steatite was reduced to crumbling fragments; in
a doorway of the palace lay a shapeless lump of bronze,
once the trimmings for the door. Strangest of all was the
effect on plaster. . . . The intense heat reconverted it
into unslaked lime, and this, under the first rain, again
formed plaster, encasing vases, or anything else on which
it fell, in an air-tight, almost petrified mass. Sometimes
at the core such a mass was still moist. In time, we
looked to rooms where the destruction had been most
complete, and where the pick struck such solid opposition,
to yield us the best returns; for in them the possessions
of the ancient burghers remained undisturbed, awaiting
the patience of our workmen to knife them out.”+ Articles
of pottery which were thus hermetically sealed for over
3000 years have retained much of their ancient beauty of
colour as well as of form.

Small portions of the town at the north-western and
south-western ends were reoccupied after the conflagration
took place. But if an attempt was made to revive the
prosperity of Gournia, it did not meet with success. The
site was completely abandoned before, or during, the
Homeric Age, and has since offered no attractions to
settlers.

Built as it was on a limestone foundation, where every
inch of space was valuable and no levelling was possible,
Gournia retains few traces of its original structures. A
refuse heap in its vicinity has yielded pottery fragments
of the Early Minoan II Period (c. 2600-2400 B.c.), and
burials on the neighbouring slopes are of even remoter

1 Gournia, p. 21,

258 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

date. Apparently the valley was inhabited from the
beginning of the Bronze Age (c. 2800 B.c.), first by agri-
culturists, then by traders and artisans, for whose wares
the mariners found a ready market. Finds of obsidian
suggest that the site was first chosen by a community of
the “crofter-fishermen” class, which produced daring
seamen and enterprising traders.

The oldest buildings in the town belong to the Middle
Minoan III Period (¢. 1900-1700 B.c.). These are
situated at the extreme north-eastern and south-western
ends, and it seems possible that other dwellings intervened.
The town as a whole dates from the Late Minoan I
Period (c. 1700-1500 B.c.). Possibly many of the houses
of which traces survive occupy the sites of others of greater
antiquity and slighter construction. A town of growing
prosperity was likely to be entirely rebuilt in the process
of time. Besides, political changes may have occurred
and caused disasters, like those which overtook the earliest
palaces of Knossos and Phestos in the Middle Minoan II
Period, although no traces of these survive among the
Gournia ruins, and the town as we find it may date from
a first reoccupation period. Thus there may have been a
Gournia I which was succeeded by Gournia II, the town
with which we are dealing, and there might have been a
Gournia III had the social revival, which is indicated by
the few later buildings of the reoccupation period, been
allowed to develop.

For some 200 years, that is, from about the late
period of the Hyksos occupation of Egypt till about the
beginning of the reign of Thothmes III, the great con-
quering Pharaoh, Gournia was a flourishing and important
industrial and trading centre. The stones which pave its
little streets were worn down by the booted feet of its
busy citizens. In an age when traders had to barter wares

VINUNOD JO NMOL ATLLIT FHL AO SNINU AHL

LIFE IN THE LITTLE TOWNS 259

which were worthy to compete with the products of Egypt,
art was stimulated by commerce. The best pottery was
of as exquisitely graceful design as the finest ceramic pro-
ducts of any country in any age, and the decorative designs
were often as elaborate as the soft colour effects were
worthy of the high degree of technical skill attained. The
artists sometimes developed the spiral and geometric
motives, and sometimes used with fine effect familiar sea-
shore subjects, like the octopods, sea-urchins, sea-snails,
sea-anemones, corals and shells, as well as riverside reeds
and flowers waving in soft winds. Mottled designs with
shading effects were also in favour, and the resulting
colour effects were no doubt as pleasing to contemporary
purchasers as they are to us at the present day. Some of
the vessels were evidently copies of the products of metal
workers, for the decorators painted on imitation rivets.
One of the models was the silver cup found in the house
tomb, and already referred to. It is of graceful shape,
with two handles and a finely fluted rim.

The special charm of Gournia is the light it throws
on the everyday life of its citizens. Bronze hooks of
modern shape and a pierced leaden sinker indicate that
they fished from the rocks, and visited in boats those
feeding-places in the little bay where shoals were to be
found at certain states of the tide. It may be because
they used shell-fish for bait that they decorated their
shrines and pictures with shells, thus associating them
with the mother-goddess who provided the food supply.
That there was a fishing community in the small towns is
suggested by a fresco at Phylakopi, Melos, which depicts
fishermen carrying fish, which they grasp by the tails,
from the sea beach. No doubt they were sold in the
market-place as, we gather from tomb pictures, was the
case in Egypt.

260 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

One of the most interesting finds was a carpenter’s
kit which had escaped the attention of the plunderers and
the ravages of fire. It lay under a floor, where it may
have been concealed by a workman who, poor fellow,
probably hoped to find it again. It contained, among
other things, several bronze chisels, a saw, a double axe,
and a pair of tweezers. In a room of the same house
were storage jars, clay weights which had probably hung
from a weaving-frame, a three-legged cooking-pot, cups
and bowls, a jug, a whetstone, and so on. Another room
yielded a bronze sword, as well as a variety of household
vessels. . In the storeroom stood an oil vat made by a
potter. But a more complete specimen was discovered
in another and older house. It rested on a stone slab,
its spout projecting outward on a level with the base.
“There can be little doubt as to its use”, writes Mr.
Bosanquet, describing a similar vat found in another
Cretan town. “In the modern process the olive kernels
before being pressed are drenched with hot water, and
the product after pressing contains more water than oil.
The oil in due course separates itself and rises to the sur-
face, and it is necessary either to bail it out from the top
or to drain away the water from the bottom... . The
latter method is in general use, large and complicated
tanks being constructed on this principle; the Presos jar
illustrates the simplest form of it, in which, after the con-
tents have been allowed to stand some time, the tap is set
running and the water escapes, a watcher being ready to
stop the flow and change the recipient as soon as the oil
appears.”* Spouts which were utilized to run off water
and oil from the vats have also been found. Various
household articles discovered in different parts of Gournia
include “ Ali Baba” storage jars, a shallow dairy basin in

1 Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. VIII, p. 268.

BIFEOIN THE EIPELE TOWNS 261

which milk was set for cream, fillers, ewer-like jugs, clay
bottles, cooking-pots, hand-lamps resembling little flower
vases, cream jugs, and small saucepans. <A “ flaring-
bowl” on three legs no doubt provided sufficient light
for a well-sized room. Of special interest was the dis-
covery in the basement of the palace ruins of seven
stone and earthenware lamps, three of which were broken.
Probably they were used to illuminate a large room on
an upper floor, as Mrs. Hawes suggests. They are of
more elaborate design than those found in the houses
of burghers, being shallow shapely bowls with socketed
pedestals for fixing on a stone or metal standard. Three
round projections like billiard-table pockets held the float-
ing wicks, and were connected with gutters. Apparently
this lamp was made in a variety of forms.

There were no fireplaces in the Cretan houses, but on
chilly evenings apartments could be warmed with portable
fire-boxes, the lids and sides of which were perforated.
House drain-pipes found here and there indicate that
sanitary appliances were not confined to palaces.

The little town shrine, situated high on the limestone
ridge, is one of the most fascinating attractions of ruined
Gournia. It was approached by a narrow and ascending
paved road, “a much-worn way”, says Mrs. Hawes.
Much worn also are the three stone steps leading into
the little enclosure with low protecting walls. It was but
10 feet square, and could not therefore have accommodated
more than three or four persons at a time. Here grew a
sacred tree, and below it stood a round clay table, or altar,
which was found entire with a fragment of a cultus vase
standing upon it. There appears to have been three
figures of the mother-goddess, One of crude and formal
shape is almost entire. A snake curls round the waist and
round one of the shoulders, and the arms are upraised

262 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

in the Egyptian attitude of adoration, forming the “Ka”
sign. The eyes are hollow, and the mouth is not shown.
Other two heads are similarly mouthless, and one re-
sembles the face vase designs of Troy. Two clay doves
were probably associated with one of the idols. Portions
of arms entwined by snakes may have belonged to the third.
A double axe with a disk in relief on a fragment of clay
had evidently a symbolic significance. Three tube-shaped
cultus vases have the horn symbols surmounting the
handles, as well as six to eight loop handles formed by
conventionalized snakes. ‘These are usually referred to
ase s* trumpets;

In the palace and elsewhere other sacred objects were
found. One is a bronze figure of a man or god standing
on a pedestal with a nail-like projection, like the Baby-
lonian votive figures. His hair is pleated in three long
tails, one of which wriggles like a snake down his back,
while two fall in front and, following the shoulder lines,
meet across his breasts. A loin-cloth is attached to the
usual waist girdle. The figure stoops forward slightly,
with head tilted sideways; the left arm hangs by his side,
and the right is raised and doubled in, so that the hand
points towards the heart across the body. Probably this
was a religious pose. Small figurines of a seated goddess,
a miniature 8-form shield, a bronze cockle-shell, and an
earthenware imitation of a triton shell were probably
charms.

The little palace of Gournia was being gradually re-
modelled when the destroyers swept through it, robbing
its treasures and slaying the occupants. Like the greater
palace at Knossos it was erected in labyrinthine style, with
narrow corridors and groups of apartments leading one
from the other. There was also a central court, and an
outer court which may have been a market-place. It

LIFE IN THE LITTLE TOWNS 263

appears to have been in some parts two, and in others
three stories high, the roof of the central court being
flat to form a terrace, to which access could be obtained
from the windows of the second story. On the basement
were storerooms, bathrooms, public rooms, and probably
bedrooms. So thoroughly was the palace rifled before
being set on fire, that few finds of any value have been
discovered in its rubbish-heaped apartments.

A goodly number of seal stones were found in Gournia,
of Middle and Late Minoan design. These were used to
impress the trade-marks of merchants and others, and
were attached to a belt worn round the wrist. Some of
the signs look like hieroglyphs: others have a religious
character. One of the most interesting of the latter class
is a female figure wearing a bell-mouth skirt, standing on
the back of a deer. This may be a form of the early
Artemis. Hittite deities usually stand on animals’ backs.
Another seal shows two females, who appear to be dancing
like the women in one of the Paleolithic cave pictures.
A third has a prancing bull, a fourth three goats dancing
round in a circle with legs opposed, suggesting the Baby-
lonian dancing he-goats, which have a stellar significance;
a fifth the double axe, a sixth the familiar octopus, while
a seventh is a lion crouching below a palm-tree, perhaps
an Egyptian design. One of the most beautiful seals is
of green onyx, on which two dragon-flies with heads
opposed and wings outspread are exquisitely carved. It
is worthy of the best Cretan gem-engraving artisans.

If there was a Gournia I, it must have been of much
less account than Gournia IJ. The strongest settlement
on the isthmus during Early Minoan times was at Vasiliki,
which lies about 2 miles inland on the road to Hierapetra.
Its oldest ceramic remains (Early Minoan II) make it
contemporary with the Mochlos settlement, and antedate

264 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

the pottery fragments (Early Minoan III) of the Gournia
refuse-heap.

The Vasiliki remains are situated on a limestone knoll
in a narrow valley, which was anciently the strategic “key”
of the isthmus. The highway runs past it, and it com-
mands a wide prospect north and south. Rough limestone
ridges rise on either side. Brigands from the hills would
have found it difficult to capture, and merchants could
not carry their wares along the trade route if its chief
were hostile.

The knoll is protected on the northern and western
sides by a bare cliff about 15 feet high: its southern and
eastern sides slope down to the banks of a mountain
torrent. Buildings were erected on the summit, which is
comparatively level.

The little citadel, or fortress town, was first built about
2500 B.c., or earlier. It was not a place of any impor-
tance during Middle and Late Minoan times, when
Gournia was flourishing.

Mr. Seager, the American archeologist, who under-
took the excavations at this important site, has divided
the history of Vasiliki into four periods.’

Of the buildings of Period I no traces survive. Ob-
sidian artifacts found in this early strata are of superior
type to those from Gournia. They indicate a commercial
connection with Melos, perhaps through Mochlos, then a
promontory. The pottery, with the exception of a few
fragments, is hand-made, and had been developed from
Neolithic varieties. “The goblets”, says Mr. Seager,
“show an advance upon a Knossian form of the First
Early Minoan Period, which in turn has been compared
with pottery found by Dr. Petrie in First Dynasty de-
posits at Abydos.”

1 Gournia, pp. 49, 50+

LIne IN THE LITFLE TOWNS 265

The Period II buildings can be traced. Trading
relations with the Cyclades had evidently become more
intimate. One of the popular wares was a buff clay hand-
made variety, painted in Cycladic style. It resembles
fragments found at Phylakopi in Melos, and other frag-
ments from sites in eastern Crete. Here we have a
departure from the Bronze Age ceramic sequence at
Knossos, indicating local development on independent
lines. Obsidian was still used, bronze being evidently
scarce.

Period III was the most flourishing period at Vasiliki.
The houses of Period II were levelled, and the whole
settlement was rebuilt. It is uncertain whether or not
this change was due to a fresh ethnic infusion into the
district or to intertribal strife which affected the “ balance
of power”. Vasiliki had now apparently trading con-
nections with Egypt, Cyprus, and Troy. A distinctive
pottery, the mottled variety, displaced all others in popu-
larity. It was wheel-made, and the Egyptian potter’s
wheel had therefore come into use. ‘The wheel-made
fragments of Periods I and II may have been imported,
but this, of course, is uncertain. The possibility remains
that there were early trading relations, direct or indirect,
with the Delta region or Libya. “Some of the Vasiliki
shapes”, writes Mr. Seager, “occur in Cyprus, and the
hard red surface of certain pieces resembles both the early
incised ware of Cyprus and the black-topped pottery of
Dr. Petrie’s Dynastic Egyptians.” The “black top” was
probably the result of baking pots upside down over an
open fire. Certain Vasiliki forms—the “spout vase”’,
the “bulged bowl”, the “egg-cup” and “ tea-cup ’—
have been found in the second city of Troy, but the
Trojan variety is less finely wrought than the Cretan.
This mottled pottery has been discovered also on the

266 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Cycladic island of Amorgos and in Spain. Reference has
already been made to its resemblance to Turkestan speci-
mens which Mrs. Hawes has examined. It may, as has
been suggested, have been distributed along the tin
trade and copper trade routes which were “tapped” by
Cretan mariners. At the close of Period III Vasiliki was
destroyed by fire. So thoroughly was the settlement
plundered that, as Mr. Seager writes, “only three pieces
of bronze were found on the site: two half axe-heads .. .
and a dagger of the Early Minoan triangular shape”.
The pottery was preserved as at Gournia among the
heaps of fallen plaster from the upper stories. Lower
stories were constructed of stone.

In Period IV, which was disturbed and decadent, hut-
like houses were erected. The mottled pottery went out
of use and was substituted by a coarse variety, with white
geometric designs painted on a dark surface, similar to
the Early Minoan fragments found in the Gournia refuse-
heap. After a period of uncertain duration, represented
by a deposit of 14 metres, the knoll was abandoned. The
builders of Gournia II may have established their sway
over the isthmus. It seems probable that a political up-
heaval took place. The Gournia crania of the Early and
Middle Minoan Periods indicate that the population was
mainly long-headed. Broad-headed skulls were repre-
sented by only 8.5 per cent among those found. The
proportion of broad-heads increased greatly in Late
Minoan times.}

Stepping eastward from Gournia we pass the little
island of Mochlos and the larger one of Psyra. Mochlos,
as indicated, has yielded important relics of the Early
Minoan Period. On Psyra there have been excavated the
ruins of houses of Late Minoan date, which were con-

1 Gournia, p. 59»

*gfz oSud uo paquosap Asayama yo pavoy 24} P2taaoosip SEAL YI A UC

qALaud JO LSVOO HLYON AHL dAO ‘SSOTHOOW AO ANVISI FHL

LIFE IN THE EITTLE TOWNS 267

temporary with those of Gournia. In one a portion of
painted relief has survived. Characteristic pottery and
finely executed stone vases have also been brought to
light.

Our faces are turned towards the land of the Eteo-
cretans, the “true Cretans”’ of classic tradition, whose
archeological records go back to the Neolithic Period.
At the village of Kavasi, our road, which is little better
than a mule-track, begins to ascend, and we cross the
high frontier of Sitia through a steep, rocky pass. Then
we descend into a stretch of country lying between the
central mountain spine of Crete and its northern shore,
from which many torrent-shaped gorges and narrow
valleys run inland. Several villages are passed ere we
reach Sitia Bay. At Mouliana, Dr. Xanthoudides has
excavated beehive tombs which contained, among other
things, long bronze swords. These belong to the much-
disturbed Late Minoan Period. Farther on is the village
of Khamezi, where the same archeologist has assigned
a house ruin to Middle Minoan times. We pass through
the valley of Skopi, which leads us towards Sitia Bay.
The valley of Sitia, which is embraced by the looping
River Stomio, is exceedingly fertile. The olive and
the vine flourish exceedingly, as do also the grain crops.
Villagers elect to dwell on elevated sites on account of
the malarious conditions of the low grounds.

About a mile distant from Port Sitia, along the sandy
shore, is a low headland jutting out from the hills that
fringe the eastern side of the valley. Round it the rough
highway twists sharply, and on the summit is the little
hamlet of Petras. Here the deep bay is sheltered from
northerly gales, and affords a safe anchorage close to the
shore. We recognize at once that Petras must have been

an important place in ancient days. Like Vasiliki, it was
(c 808 ) 21

268 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

a strategic “key” of a trade route; the highway which it
dominates is the easiest approach to the Eteocretan High-
lands; the natural harbour was the “nursery” of a sea
trade, and the valley provided a surplus of food to pro-
mote it.

Mr. Bosanquet conducted excavations on this site in
1901. The results, although not too encouraging, were
not without importance. The hillock had been reclaimed
fifteen years previously by a couple of Moslem brothers,
who employed “a large force of labourers to demolish the
ancient masonry, and to form the hill-side into cultivation
terraces”. The destruction wrought was “systematic and
complete”. Large blocks of limestone and ashlar had
been built into the field walls. Traces were obtained on
the west side of the village of a building nearly 19 yards
long, but it was impossible to determine its breadth. In
one apartment was found a Kamares jar which is probably
of Middle Minoan date. A round tower once stood on
a plateau above the headland, which was approached by a
road cut for a few yards through the rock, and another
was situated below the highway. A rubbish heap on the
north-east slope of the settlement yielded “masses of
Kamares pottery in all degrees of coarseness and delicacy”’.
Mixed with the heap were stone chippings, suggesting the
process of rebuilding, probably in Late Minoan times.
Obsidian flakes taken from trial pits indicate that Petras
was inhabited from the Early Minoan Period, if not from
Neolithic days.

From Petras we follow the serpentine track along the
rugged shore for a few miles, and then turn southward
round the hill range surmounted by Mount Modi towards
Grandes Bay. It is a lonely journey. There is an abun-
dance of game on foot and wing, but the chief stalkers

1 Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. VIII, pp. 282-5.

LIFE IN THE LITTLE TOWNS 269

are the ground vermin. The hills are intersected by a
maze of tortuous valleys, with patches of faded grass and
clumps of murmuring trees, broken by bald brown ridges
and bluff grey crags. Seaward we have glimpses through
winding glens and over basin-shaped valleys of beetling
cliffs and streaks of sandy beach fretted by foaming waves,
and of blue islands girdled by the dazzling waters in
bright sunshine.

At length we descend towards Palaikastro, which lies
about 3 miles across a beautiful valley. Olive groves
stretch from the foot-hills towards fields of waving grain
that form a belt along the shoreland of gravelly ridges
and yellow sand.

The bay is flanked on either side by promontories
that jut seaward like the great toes of a crab. Towards
the south-east its graceful inland curve is broken by a
little headland with steep sides, resembling an overturned
boat, but with a flat summit. Between this bluff acropolis
and the southern range of hills stood the ancient town of
Palaikastro. Its site is known as Roussolakkos, which
signifies “the red hollow”’, the redness being due mainly
to the crumbling bricks of ancient buildings embedded in
the accumulated debris of long centuries. Part of the
plain is marshy on the north side of the acropolis.

Perhaps this sheltered bay is the natural harbour
referred to in the Biblical narrative of Paul’s voyage in
“a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy. . . . We sailed
under Crete over against Salmone; and, hardly passing it,
came into a place which is called The Fair Havens, nigh
whereunto was the city of Lasea.’’!

Although larger and more important as a trading-
centre than Gournia, Palaikastro was less compactly built.
Excavations have revealed a long straggling town re-

1 Acts, xxvii, 6-8,

290 CRETE-& PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

sembling an overgrown village. It was traversed from
one end to another by a paved thoroughfare, appropriately
named “Main Street’? by the representatives of the
British School at Athens. Towards the western end
another street crossed at right angles, and a second,
branching to the right in the south-east quarter, ran
round a block and joined another side street. Plunderers,
ancient and modern, have wrought much havoc among
the buildings; some of its hewn boulders appear in the
field walls of the little farms in the vicinity.

The house ruins which have been unearthed are of a
Late Minoan town contemporary with Gournia. Traces
have been also obtained of an earlier town of the Middle
Minoan II Period, which was probably destroyed.

Outlying sites indicate that the valley was inhabited
from the earliest times. One of these has been located at
Magassa, the mountain village already referred to, where
the coarse archaic pottery, stone houses, and obsidian
flakes belong to a period long anterior to the introduction
of metal. Rock shelters indicate even more primitive
conditions of life.

The houses were larger than those at Gournia, and
were more massively built. No doubt they resembled
the villas of the Knossian mosaic with two or three
stories, elaborate windows, and attics, resembling “ deck
houses”, on the flat roofs. One or two had spacious
apartments, and it is possible that they were occupied by
several families closely related.

The pottery ranged from Middle Minoan times to
the Late Minoan Period of decline. Ina single room of
a house in Main Street were found seventeen shapely
“fillers”. Some are of the type carried by the “cup-
bearer” of the Knossian fresco, while others are of pear
form with narrow necks, jutting lips, and small handles.

‘mot sndojo0 uv Jo ustuzead] SuNsasazurl UB SALOYS BSBA [e.IU2D YT,

OULSVIIVIVd WOW AYALLOd GALVUOOUd

Ww

LIFE IN THE LErrLe TOWNS 271

In addition to these and other highly-decorated vases,
special interest attaches to the many domestic utensils,
including cooking-vessels, pans for baking bread, candle-
sticks, lamps, and portable fire-boxes.

An important sanctuary site has been excavated by
Professor Myres near Palaikastro. It is situated on the
ridge of hills that fringe the southern side of the valley,
and rises abruptly behind the town, and on the slope of
its highest eminence, called Petsofa. Here were unearthed
a large number of clay votive figurines of human beings,
animals, &c., in strata enclosed by walls. Evidently there
had been a sacred building here, but it cannot be described
as a temple, for its ruins resemble those of the ordinary
dwelling-houses at Palaikastro. Three distinct layers
were cut through. The lowest is of clay, red on the sur-
face, but containing no relics. “It doubtless represents”,
writes Professor Myres,! “the original packing of earth
to level the enclosure; and in that case its red colour is
due to prolonged baking by the bonfire on its surface.”
The next layer, which is of dark earth, was full of ashes and
charcoal fragments, and “crowded with figurines”. Broken
pottery and figurines were also found in the surface layer.

The male figurines have either painted or modelled
upon them the characteristic Cretan loin-cloths and kilts,
with waist-girdles and boots or slippers. In one instance
there is a body “wrapper ” in relief, which is drawn over
either shoulder, and crosses at the back and over the
breast. This garment presents “very close analogies”,
says Professor Myres, “with the Scottish plaid, which is
first wound round the waist and then has the ends crossed
in front, brought over the shoulders, crossed again on the
back, and secured by being tucked through the waist folds,
so that the ends hang down like a tail”.

1 Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. IX, pp. 356 et seq.

gyz CRETEC& PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Most of the female figurines have the usual pinched
waists, tight bodices, and bell-shaped gowns. The head-
dress varies, and in some cases looks startlingly modern.
In one case we have a Dolly Varden hat with crimped
brim and a trimming of rosettes; in another a low crown
with the brim curving in front like an inverted horseshoe,
and one of the expanding sides set off with a frill or
plume; a third is high and conical, looking somewhat
like a lamp. Sometimes the head-dress is an elaborate
hair-dressing, probably on a frame, resembling a high
peaked nightcap bending forward, and crossed by a couple
of broad white bands. The bodice has always a low neck,
the breasts being covered by a thin under-garment, or, as
the frescoes suggest, a stiff model of the bust. Usually a
wide standing collar rises to a point behind the back,
jutting outward.

Traces of paint indicate that the costumes of the Cretan
ladies were not awanting in tasteful colour-effects. Some
of the hats appear to have been white, while brown, green,
and black gowns were decorated with triple horizontal
bands between which triple bands crossed at a slope.
Like the bodices, these might also be elaborately embroi-
dered in various colours with striking designs.

These male and female votive figurines appear to have
been representations of worshippers who deposited them
_ perhaps as charms to protect themselves against the influ-
ences of evil. Most of them are standing, but a propor-
tion are seated on four-legged chairs or low stools with or
without backs.

That cures were also supposed to be effected by placing
models in the purging bonfire, is suggested by the large
number of votive arms, legs, heads, and bodies. The
single limbs vary in length: in one case a protruding
thumb suggests that it is the affected part. There are

LIFE IN THE LITTLE TOWNS he

several forearms with or without hands, and in one case
the whole arm is attached to part of a female body.
Detached feet and heads, the upper part of a female show-
ing protruding breasts, and a male body with leg stumps
may indicate the locations of disease. On the other hand,
it is possible that those who deposited these models may
have desired to increase the skill of the hand, the strength
of arms and legs, the supply of human milk, and so on.
A man setting out on a journey might have cast into the
sacred fire the model of his legs, so as to ensure his safe
return.

The Petsofa fire ceremonies may have been of similar
significance to those which were anciently held in our own
country. Our ancestors believed that all the forces of
evil were let loose at times of seasonal change, and human
beings and their domesticated animals required to be
specially protected against them. At the beginning of
each quarter they lit great bonfires to thwart the demons
and fairies, and also to secure luck and increase. The
quarter-day was the “settling-day”” between mankind and
the supernatural beings: those which were the source of
good things were propitiated, and those which were the
source of evil were baffled by the performance of cere-
monies of riddance. In parts of the Scottish Highlands
boys still light Beltane (May Day) fires and drive cattle
over the ashes to charm them against the influence of the
evil eye, the spells of witches, and the attacks of fairies.
The New Year’s Day bonfire is even more common. It
is uncertain whether it has been called a bonfire because
bones used to be burned in it or because it was the source
of “boons”. In England the Midsummer fires were
called “Blessing Fires”.1 As in Scotland and Ireland,
the folks danced round them and leapt through the flames

1 Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Vol. I, p. 306.

274 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

when they burned low. Brand quotes an interesting old
translation, which runs:

Then doth the joyful feast of John the Baptist take his turne,
When bonfires great, with lofty flame, in everie towne doe burne;
And yong men round about with maides doe daunce in everie
streete,

With garlands wrought of motherwort, or else with vervain sweete,
And many other flowres faire, with violets in their handes,
Whereas they all do fondly thinke, that whosoever standes,

And thorow the flowres beholdes the flame, his eyes shall feel

no paine.

When thus till night they dauncéd have, they through the fire
amaine

With striving mindes doe runne, and all their hearbes they cast
therein.

And then with wordes devout and prayers they solemnly begin,
Desiring God that all their illes may there consuméd be;
Whereby they thinke through all that yeare from agues to be free.

Others made a wheel of fire, which they cast down at
night from a mountain-top.

They suppose their mischiefes are all likewise throwne to hell,

And that from harmes and daungers now in safetie here they
dwell.

Sometimes the folks are also represented at these
festivals,
Supping mylk with cakes
And casting mylk to the bonefire.?

The beliefs enshrined in these old customs, which have
survived after so many:centuries of Christian influence,
afford us a clue to the motives of the Cretans who cast
images into their fires. In addition to the male and
female figurines found at Petsofa there is also a large
number of models of tame and wild animals. The com-

1 Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Vol. 1, pp. 300 ef seq.

LIFE CIN THE LITTLE TOWNS a7

monest of them is the ox, which suggests that the charm-
ing of cattle was of great antiquity. Calves, dogs, goats,
and rams were probably represented for a similar purpose.
It cannot be held, however, that the models of unclean
animals and ground vermin were cast in the fire because
men desired that they should be increased in number or
protected against attack. These included the fox and
weasel, the hedgehog, which was supposed to steal the
milk of cows, and the pig, which was abhorred as in
Egypt, Palestine, Wales, and Scotland. Apparently the
offerings were made for a variety of reasons, like those
made at “wishing wells” and “wishing trees” in our own
country at the present day by the folks who perpetuate old
customs in a playful spirit. The Cretans probably pro-
nounced blessings over the models of domesticated animals,
and curses over the bestial enemies of mankind, believing
that spells were confirmed by the magical action of fire.
In ancient Egypt images of the Apep devil-serpent were
cursed and spat upon before being committed to the
flames, so that its power of working evil might suffer
decline.

Other clay models found at Petsofa include miniature
cups, vases, bowls, and jugs, as well as little plaques with
lumps of clay representing bread. In such cases the desire
was apparently to ensure the food-supply. Tree-like
objects suggest a belief that fruit-crops could be increased
by the influence of the fire spell. Several symbolic objects
were, no doubt, protective offerings. These included
articles with four C spiral terminations and balls of clay,
which may have been charms against the “evil eye”, like
the “luck balls”” which were manufactured and sold in
these islands in comparatively recent times.

Another Eteocretan seaport which drove a busy trade
in the Late Minoan I Period was Zakro. It is situated

276 CRETE 3&8 PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

about 8 miles from Palaikastro. Rather than follow the
rough mule-path over the plateau and through twisting
vales and narrow gorges, we prefer to sail round the
rugged coast with its beetling cliffs and shingly slopes.
On our way we pass the boats of the sponge divers. The
famous sponges which grow along the eastern shores of
Crete are still in as great demand as in the days when
Hellenic warriors utilized them as comfortable pads—which
also absorbed perspiration—in their helmets and boots.
We wonder at the power of endurance displayed by the
divers. One has been submerged for ninety seconds ;
here another has waited on the floor of the ocean thirty
seconds longer, but we are informed that he is not a
record-breaker.

We tack round a rugged headland and enter the little
natural harbour of Zakro, which affords excellent anchor-
age near the shore. . It is sheltered from every wind
except the east, which, however, is of rare occurrence.
The gusty north winds are deflected by the mountains,
and when they rage on the open sea and toss high billows
round Cape Plaka, Zakro Bay is comparatively peaceful.
Many a Minoan ship must have run in here to escape a
sudden meltem which was strewing the Mediterranean with
ribbons of snowy foam.

The little saucer-shaped plain, fronted by a beach of
sand and shingle, is marshy in part, and consequently
malarious. It has, however, its vineyards, patches of
cornfield, and clumps of olive-trees, and a small popula-
tion. High and frowning ridges of bluish limestone
enclose it on every side, and the River Zakro, which flows
southward from a gorge on the western side, and turns
abruptly eastward towards the sea, has a resemblance here
to the letter L. The valley behind the plain stretches
for about 6 miles, and varies from 1 mile to 2 miles in

LIFE IN THE LITTLE TOWNS 277

breadth. It is approached through narrow rocky passes,
one of which leads to Upper Zakro.

On two mountain spurs on the northern side of the
plain, which are separated by a dell, are ruins of houses.
Their builders selected these elevated sites to escape
malaria. The acropolis was on the highest part of the
western spur, and could be approached from the southern
side only. Here, within the area enclosed by massive
walls, are the Zakro pits of archeology. The largest was
visited by Italian archzologists in the early days of Cretan
research, but was not thoroughly explored until Mr.
Hogarth conducted his systematic excavations in 1901.’
The deposit was about 8 feet in depth. It yielded three
obsidian flakes and fragments of implements of bone and
of bronze pins and blades. There were also bits of stone
vessels. ‘The mass of the find”, Mr. Hogarth writes,
“was in earthenware, and included about eighty unbroken
vases among thousands of fragments.” Four-fifths of the
pottery was Late Minoan IJ, and the remainder of the
Kamares variety (Middle Minoan), with Eteocretan char-
acteristics. The Vasiliki mottled ware was represented,
but there was no trace of Neolithic ceramic products.
Some pottery was obtained in a second pit and among the
foundations of houses.

On the opposite spur are the ruins of well-built houses
of a prosperous community. The foundations of these
were of stone, and the upper stories of brick supported by
timber. Brick was also used for the inner walls, which
were faced with plaster. Floors were covered by concrete.
Evidence was forthcoming that the little town had been
destroyed by fire. The buildings varied in size and design.
One had fifteen apartments on the ground floor, and was
probably a small palace; another had six, and a third eight.

1 Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. VII, pp. 122 et seq.

278 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

These houses yielded some bronze relics and a good
deal of pottery, including a characteristic Cretan shell-
shaped crucible for smelting copper, perforated by a
number of holes at one end. But the most remarkable
relics were the clay seal impressions. Of these Mr.
Hogarth found about five hundred, a sure evidence that
Zakro was the home of rich and prosperous merchants.
Trade was conducted with Anatolia, and perhaps also with
Mesopotamia, along the routes terminating on its coast, as
well as with Egypt. Zakro’s position suggests that its
trade with Egypt was direct, and not by way of Cyprus.
At the present day it is the last port of call for Aégean
craft bound for the Libyan coast, where sponges are also
obtained.

The pottery from the pits indicates that there was an
earlier Zakro in the Middle Minoan II Period, when
Palaikastro I was founded. Apparently Zakro II was
destroyed, like Gournia II and Palaikastro II, in Late
Minoan II times (c. 1500-1450 B.C.).

Zakro’s dead were buried in caves in the adjoining
gorge. In the vicinity of Upper Zakro the scanty sur-
viving remains of buildings, and the tombs which have
been located, suggest that the valley had settlers from the
Early Minoan Period until early Hellenic times. There
are still a few poor villages.

_ Jn our survey of Eastern Crete we come last of all to
Przsos, the ancient capital of the “true Cretans”’. It
does not lie many miles from Upper Zakro as the crow
flies, but is separated from it by a ridge of rugged hills
that runs north and south. The most convenient way of
approach is from Sitia. This inland site is perched on
a small plateau enclosed by two streams. These unite
below in front of it, and form the River Sitia, which runs
through a 7-miles-long valley towards Sitia Bay. South-

Bie IN THE LITTLE TOWNS} | 279

ward the road shrinks to a narrow pass, which could easily
be closed against an enemy. It makes a long detour by
way of Klandra and Zyro towards Zakro valley.

The Prezsians informed Herodotus that Crete was
twice stripped of its inhabitants, only a remnant being left
on each occasion. The first disaster resulted from the
expedition which Minos led against Sicily, and the second
after the Trojan war, when the greater part of the popu-
lation was stricken by famine and pestilence. Men of
various nations flocked to Crete, “but none came in such
numbers as the Grecians’’.*

Evidently classical writers believed that the “true
Cretans” were representative of the aboriginal inhabitants
—the ancient seafarers who suppressed the island pirates
and colonized the mainland of Greece, the Cycladic islands,
and Lycia and Caria in western Anatolia. But excavations
at Presos have failed to support this hypothesis. Before
the Early Hellenic Period the little town was not a place
of any importance. It was certainly not a centre of
Minoan civilization. The people who erected the inland
stronghold were evidently invaders who came before the
Greeks—perhaps they were the destroyers of Zakro and
Palaikastro. It may be that, like the Hellenes, they were
of Indo-European speech, and represented an early wave
of mingled Achean and Pelasgian stock from the con-
tinent. As there are traces that they perpetuated Minoan
religion in early classical times, it may well be that they
fused with the people they conquered, and were influenced
by their modes of thought, and that in consequence the
Greeks did not realize that they were intruders like them-

1 Herodotus, VII, 170, 171.
2In classical times the Eteo Cretans did not speak Greek. They used Greek
characters, however, in their inscriptions which have not yet been read. The oldest

inscription belongs to the sixth century B.c. It may be that this language was not
Indo-European. Professor Conway, however, thinks it was.

280 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

selves. The conquered people may have beer. early
settlers from Anatolia, and not of the same racial stock
as the settlers of North African origin.

The Presian invasion probably occurred in the Late
Minoan III Period. All the buildings which can be
credited to the so-called “true Cretans” are of a later age.
The earlier inhabitants, the real “true Cretans”’, are
represented by the relics found in the cave of Skalais above
the river gorge at the north side of the plateau. Here,
in what may have been either a dwelling or burial-place,
were found fragments of pottery of the Neolithic and
Early Minoan Periods, and also some sherds of the
Kamares (Middle Minoan) variety. Prior to the coming
of the founders of Presos, who erected beehive tombs
and worshipped a mother-goddess closely resembling the
Trojan deity, the plateau was probably a grazing-place for
the inhabitants of the fertile valley stretching towards
Sitia Bay. In Homeric times the island had many ethnic
elements. The following reference in the Odyssey is
significant :—

There is a land amid the sable flood

Call’d Crete; fair, fruitful, circled by the sea.
Num’rous are her inhabitants, a race

Not to be summ’d, and ninety towns she boasts.
Diverse their language is; Achaians some,

And some indigenous are; Cydonians there,
Crest-shaking Dorians, and Pelasgians dwell.’

In the next chapter we will visit the imvortant sites
of Southern Crete.
1 Odyssey, XIX.

CHAPTER XTi
The Palace of Phestos

The Great Messara Plain—Site of Phestos—The Trial Pits—Neolithic
Remains— The Whale’s Backbone—Religious Significance of Sea-shells—
Ancient Musical Instruments—The Iron Charm—Beliefs regarding Iron—
Obsidian Razors—First and Second Palaces of Phestos—Grand Stairway and
“Hall of State”—Villa of Aghia Triadha—Famous Cat Fresco and Egyptian
Prototypes—Sculptured Stone Vases—The King and his Warriors—Boxers
and Bull-baiters—Procession on “Harvester Vase”—A Painted Sarcophagus—
Bull Sacrifice—Charioteers of Hades—Burial Ceremony—Priests and Priestesset
—The Double-axe Symbol—Beliefs about Ravens and Doves—The Other:
world.

Havinc surveyed eastern Crete we return to Candia with
some knowledge of the character of the ancient civilization
which culminated in the palace glories of Knossos. It
remains with us next to visit the southern part of the
island, which is fragrant with the memories of Minoan
Phestos, and the city of Gortyna, established by the in-
vading Greeks and rebuilt by the Romans.

We strike southward by the road which crosses and
ascends the river valleys until we reach Daphnes, and tind
a break in the mountain spine of the island which leads us
to the great Messara plain. The sea is shut off by rugged
Kophino mountains that fringe the coast and divert the
flow of the River Hieropotamos towards the west.

Phestos had a strategic situation. Its palace stood
upon a low mountain spur commanding the western
approach to the Messara Plain. When the site was located
by Professor Halbherr, the Italian archeologist, slight

281

282 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

traces only remained of its ruins in a field of rustling
barley. A noble panorama of mountain scenery is here
unfolded before us. To the north-east is Mount Dicte,
and to the north-west the greater Mount Ida, the monarchs
of sublime and massive mountain ridges. ‘“ The outline
of the mountains”, writes Mosso, “ differs little from that
of the Apennines, but the blue colour is more intense... .
Between the ridges the slopes fade in the distance till the
blue blends with the grey of the sky. The villages look
like eagles’ nests perched on the cliffs, each girt round
with a garland of olives, they too shading into blue... .
Before the sun sets the shadows in the ravines of Ida
deepen into indigo, and the rocks of the whole chain
become violet—an optical phenomenon rarely seen in the
Alps. The poets of classical Greece allude to this violet
colour in the mountains round Athens. In Italy only the
shadows become violet, but here in Crete the rocks are
violet.””?

When the palace of Phestos was excavated, it was
found to be of smaller extent than that of Knossos.
Beneath its ruins were found traces of an earlier building
resting on a Neolithic deposit.

An interesting account is given by Mosso of trial pits
he sunk below the latest palace floor to the virgin soil,
with purpose to ascertain the character of the earliest strata.
The deepest of these was 54 metres on a slope of the
hill, while the shallowest was only 4 metre. Evidently
the ground had been levelled for the foundations of the
palace.

As at Knossos, it was found that the earliest settlers
were in a more advanced stage of civilization than those in
eastern Crete, who built stone houses and hollowed out
rock shelters. This is of special interest in view of the

1 Palaces of Crete and their Builders, pp. §7, 59+

THE PALACE OF PHA:STOS 283

theory, tentatively urged in some quarters, that there
were settlements of peoples from North Africa and
Anatolia in Neolithic times.

The deep pit at the western side of the palace yielded
important finds. About 6 feet down, the foundations of
a primitive dwelling were laid bare. On the floor was
lying a portion of a whale’s backbone, which, like similar
relics from the Ligurian caves, may have been regarded
as a charm. Lower down in the remains of a still older
dwelling were sea-shells which had evidently a religious
significance, as the Knossian shrine objects have indicated.
Two varieties of well-baked pottery came to light—a dark
and a red. Animal bones included those of the oxen,
sheep, boars, hares, and birds. Certain pointed bone
implements may have been potter’s tools. The carved
femora of great birds are believed by Mosso to have been
mouthpieces of musical instruments—the pipes of Pan or
a primitive bagpipe.’ At a depth of 4 metres there was a
roughly-shaped headless figurine of the mother-goddess.
It has the characteristics of Cycladic and Trojan relics of
like character. Near the figure lay a piece of magnetite.
“According to the analysis”, Mosso writes, “it consisted
of oxydized iron. We may be certain that it was a sacred
stone from the fact that the Neolithic folk had not made
a weapon or a hammer of it. Possibly they believed it to
be a meteoric stone: it was known at that period that
these stones came from heaven, for they appear with a
luminous track and fall to earth with a sound.’”?

In Egypt iron was anciently known as “the metal of
heaven”’. One theory of heaven was that it was formed
of a rectangular plate of iron which rested either on the
mountains that surrounded the earth or on pillars. This

1 Dawn of Modern Civilization, pp. 69, 70.

” Palaces of Crete and their Builders, p. 29.
(0 808 ) 22

284 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

divine metal was used as a charm. In the Scottish High-
lands it is supposed to prevent fairies and other demons
from attacking mankind, and it serves a similar purpose
‘1 India and West Africa. The fact that Copts are for-
bidden to use it to exorcise demons indicates that it was
of magical potency in ancient Egypt. Perhaps it was on
account of its association with pagan religious beliefs, like
the ear-rings worn by Jacob’s wives, that it was not used
in the construction of the Jewish altar.

Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in
Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the
children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses,
an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron.?

A piece of magnetic iron was found in the Neolithic
stratum of Troy, which also yielded small ritual dishes
like those of Phestos. It has already been stated that the
Phestian ceramic sequence accords with that of Knossos.
Obsidian knives gave indication, as elsewhere on the island,
of trading relations with Melos before the age of metal.
“These knives”, writes Mosso, “cut so well that during
the excavation I always kept one in my pocket to cut my
pencil point.”* They continued in use long after the
‘ntroduction of bronze. An excavator informed the writer
that he found a worker with an obsidian razor. Asked
why he used it, he remarked that his father had done so
before him. In Egypt the earliest razors were of flint.
A small flint razor recently found in northern Scotland
had a comparatively good shaving edge, as was proved
when put to the test.

The ruins of the early palace of Phestos were levelled,
and formed in many parts a foundation for the later
palace. Owing to this fortunate circumstance, pottery

1 Foshua, Vill, 30, 31+ 2 Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization, p. 89.

SOLS#Hd JO AOVIVd “ASVOUIVLS GNVYO FHL

iM sr ae
ants

THE PALACE OF PHASTOS 285

and other relics were preserved. The early palace was
erected in the Middle Minoan I Period (c. 2200 B.c.), and
the work of constructing the second begun in the Late
Minoan I Period (c. 1700 B.c.). Excellent specimens
were obtained from the first buildings of the fine Middle
Minoan Kamares pottery. But other finds were of scanty
character. A little gold lay beside charred wood. It
probably “ornamented a small piece of furniture”, as
Mosso suggests. Remains were also discovered “of a
cabinet with quadrangular tablets of very hard terracot
which fitted together, and some cornices in repoussé work
with undulating designs, resembling the cornices which
were in fashion at the beginning of last century”. Evi-
dently the Cretans, like the Egyptians, had excellent
furniture.

The later palace was of less extent than its rival at
Knossos, which, however, it resembled in many details.
Nor has it yielded so many relics. The destroyers
appear to have plundered it thoroughly before setting
it on fire.

The most imposing feature is the “grand staircase”’,
between 40 and 50 feet wide, which led up to the Hall
of State, or Reception Hall. There is nothing to compare
with this noble entrance at Knossos. It has been con-
jectured that state ceremonials were observed in the hall,
the walls of which were probably decorated with frescoes.
A small room leading off the hall is surrounded by stone
benches, and may have been a “ waiting-room” for guests
and ambassadors, In the interior of the palace is a spacious
central court, 150 feet long and 70 feet broad, surrounded
by a maze of apartments, as is the one at Knossos. The
theatral area was at the south-east corner.

About 2 miles towards the north-west of Phzstos, at
the hamlet of Aghia Triadha, there was a smaller palace

286 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

picturesquely situated on a sloping mountain ridge, and
overlooking the sea. It is usually referred to as a “ royal
villa”. The ceramic remains on the site indicate that it
was occupied as far back as the First Middle Minoan
Period. When the villa was erected in First Late Minoan
times, portions of an earlier building were utilized. It
was an imposing building, and was entered by a flight of
steps. Around it stood in the first period a number of
substantial houses, which may have been occupied by rich
traders or Cretan aristocrats. In the second period the
villa appears to have been a communal dwelling.

Like the Knossian palace, the villa was, when the
destroyers had wreaked their vengeance upon it, not
entirely plundered of its archeological treasures. Frescoes
have been happily preserved. The most famous of these
depicts a cat hunting birds in a marsh. It was evidently
painted by one who had seen similar studies in Egyptian
tombs at Beni Hassan and Thebes. The Cretan artists
were inferior draughtsmen to their Nilotic contemporaries,
but they were finer impressionists. In Egypt the cat is
statuesque and cold; at Aghia Triadha’ the ferocity and
murderous instincts of the callous animal are conveyed
with impressive vivacity; the artist undoubtedly conveys
the mood, although his technique is faulty. The Egyp-
tian was essentially a stylist, and rarely produced the
‘nervous art which was so characteristic of Grete.

Three stone vases, with figures sculptured in relief,
which were found in the villa, are triumphs of Minoan
art. On one is a group of warriors with shields, and two
outstanding figures, one posed stiffly with outstretched
right arm, and grasping a long staff or lance as if issuing
a military order, and the other with a drawn sword resting
on his right shoulder, standing at attention. The second
vase is divided into four zones, in which appear the figures

THE PALACE OF PHSTOS 287

of boxers, bulls, and toreadors. Some of the boxers wear
helmets, and others are bare-headed; they all appear to
have something equivalent to the boxing-glove on each
of their hands. The bull-baiter is seen leaping between
the horns of the rearing bull. In Crete, as in Plato’s
“Tost Atlantis”, the sport or religious ceremony of bull-
baiting was conducted without weapons. The gymnast
seized the approaching animal by the horns and turned
a somersault over its back, coming down behind the
animal. Various representations of this feat are shown
on seals found on Cretan sites and at Mycene. Sir Arthur
Evans found at Knossos ivory figures of leaping gymnasts
who were probably bull-baiters. On a gold cup from
Vaphio, which is preserved in the museum at Athens,
are two figures of bulls.~ One is charging furiously,
while a female gymnast grips the left horn under one
arm and the right horn between her legs. A male gymnast
is falling off its back. The other bull is caught in a net.
A Knossian fresco depicts two women and a man attacking
a bull.

The third vase from Aghia Triadha is called by some
archeologists the “Harvester Vase” and by others the
“ Warrior Vase”. Round it marches a carved procession
of animated human figures who are evidently taking part
in a ceremony. That this ceremony was of religious
character seems certain, because one of the men is holding
up before him the Egyptian metal rattle called the sistrum,
which was used to summon the god and charm away
demons in Egyptian temples, and is referred to in the
chants. ‘Do we not behold the excellent sistrum-bearer
approaching to thy temple and drawing nigh,” called the
Isis priestess, invoking Osiris... . “ Behold the excellent
sistrum-bearer and come to thy temple. Come to thy
temple immediately! Behold thou my heart, which

288 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

grieveth for thee. Behold me seeking for thee... .
Lo! I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as
heaven.” }

This sistrum-bearer on the vase has not a pinched
Cretan waist, and may represent an Egyptian. He is
singing or wailing, as are also three of his immediate
followers who may be women with upper garments of
leather. Perhaps they are invoking the spirit of the
slain corn-god.

The procession appears to be led by a long-haired
elderly man, wearing a bulging robe decorated with a
scale: pattern and heavily fringed. He carries a long
round-handled staff over his right shoulder. Is he a
priest, or a victim in a wicker-work cage who is about
to be sacrificed? All the figures are marching in step—
performing, in fact, a sort of Germanic “goose step”,
and most of them carry three-pronged forks, the prongs
being attached by cords to the long handles. These re-
semble the harvesting-forks still in use in Crete. Some
of them, however, are fitted with short scythe-like blades,
which may have been used either for cutting corn or
pruning trees. A single figure—evidently a youth, is
stooping low and grasping the thighs of a man who turns
round with open mouth as if shouting defiantly a cere-
monial utterance of special significance.

Those who see in the procession the celebration of
a naval victory hold that the three-pronged implements
are really weapons. But no such weapons have been
found in Crete. If the ceremony was not a harvest one,
it may have been connected with the spring-time invoca-
tion of the deity of fertility. Mr. Hall, who regards the
vase as one of “the finest pieces of small sculpture in the
world”’, sees upon it “a procession of drunken roistering

1 The Burden of Isis, by J.T. Dennis, pp. 21 er seg and 29 et seg.

m *

Ae

ee Fe

/¢ 01 4 4 0 ee Ay

27
THREE VASES, SCULPTURED IN STONE, FOUND AT AGHIA TRIADHA
The largest of the three is known as the “‘ Boxer Vase”, and measures 18 inches high. ‘The ‘‘ Harvester
Vase”, on the left hand of the centre subject, is shown on a larger scale in plate facing page 212. The
other small vase (actual size, 4 inches high) is described on page 286.

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. : . a
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a a on ‘ 5 ae
di —- o . a er
a ie 4 my ety
A 4 ‘ mer nao "(ad ‘ eax
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THE PALACE OF (PHASTOS 289

peasants with agricultural implements.”* “ Extraordinary
technique was required”, write Mr. and Mrs. Hawes,
“to represent four abreast, each seen distinctly, one
beyond another. The Parthenon frieze presents no more
difficult problem in low relief.”

Another decorated object found at Aghia Triadha is a
sarcophagus of limestone shaped like a chest, which has
been assigned to a period prior to 1400 B.c. It is 52
inches long, 18 inches broad, and 32 inches in depth.
The body which it enclosed must have lain in a crouched
position, like the bodies placed in the pre- Dynastic
Egyptian graves and in those of the Late Stone and
Bronze Ages in Western Europe. The sarcophagus had
been covered with plaster on which were painted scenes
of undoubted religious significance. At either end are
chariots. In one, which is drawn by two griffins, a
woman is escorting a swathed pale figure, apparently the
deceased, on the way to the Otherworld; in the other,
which is drawn instead by horses, are two female figures.
A long panel on one of the sides is unfortunately badly
damaged. It appears to represent a sacrificial scene. A
bull is being slain, and a man plays on a double flute
while its blood pours into a vessel. The panel on the
other side is in a good state of preservation, and affords
an interesting and suggestive glimpse of Cretan funerary
services. At one end the swathed figure of a youth
stands before a tomb or shrine beside a conventionalized
representation of the sacred fig tree. In front, and facing
the deceased, a priest approaches carrying the model of
a boat—perhaps the “ferry boat” of Hades in which
the soul is to reach the “Isle of the Blest”, after
crossing the valleys and mountains like the Indian Yama

1 The Ancient History of the Near East, p. 54.
9 Crete, the Forerunner of Greece, p, 129.

290 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

and Babylonian Gilgamesh. Two priests follow behind,
carrying offerings. Turned in the opposite direction are
three priestesses, or, as some think, two priestesses and
a priest. The first pours a red liquid, either wine or
the blood of the sacrificed bull, into a large vessel placed
between two erect posts on pedestals. These posts are
surmounted by double axes on each of which a raven
is perched. The second priestess carries a couple of
vases suspended from a pole, one in front and one behind,
which is carried on her right shoulder. The third figure
—either a priestess or a priest—plays a seven-stringed
lyre held high in front.

The costumes are of special interest. Facing the
deceased the three priests wear robes suspended from
their waists which terminate with tail-like appendages.
These are evidently the skins of animals. Egyptian
priests wore panthers’ skins. The first priestess, who
bends down beneath the double axes, likewise wears an
animal’s skin, but she has also an upper garment with
half sleeves and a broad blue sash which comes down
under her left arm to the waist. Probably this sash
formed a St. Andrew’s Cross on the back like the plaid
on the Petsofa figure, which Professor Myres has com-
pared to the Scottish plaid. The second priestess wears
a long blue gown suspended from her shoulders and
reaching her ankles. The bodice has a floral edging and
the gown is decorated. She wears a flat round cap, and
appears to have a sash like that of the first priestess.
The lyre player is similarly attired, but has no sash, and
the head is bare.

In the next chapter the significance of the tree-pillars
and double axes will be dealt with. Here it may be
noted that the ravens take the place of the doves as the
birds of the Mother Goddess. The reason is obvious.

THE PALACE OF PH#STOS 291

Doves symbolized fertility and immortality, while ravens

_ were associated with destruction and death. In the

Scottish legends regarding Michael Scott, ravens and
doves, flying from opposite directions, approach his corpse
after death. The fact that the doves are the first to
alight is taken as an indication that Michael’s soul will
go to heaven. The ravens are the messengers of Satan.
Throughout Europe and Asia the ravens are birds of
ill omen, who foretell death and disaster. They were
associated in Greece and Italy with Apollo, the great
patron of augurs. Crows were similarly of ill repute.
According to some writers, a number of them fluttered
over Cicero’s head on the day he was murdered. Dark
and melancholy birds were evidently regarded as forms
of the spirits of darksome Hades. They were, it would
seem, associated from an early period with a sepulchral
cult. So were doves. Perhaps the raven cult believed _
in a gloomy after-life in a Hades as dismal as that of
Babylonia, while the dove cult had hopes of ultimate
happiness. In Egypt both the cults of Osiris and Ra
believed in Heavens and Hells. The Ra cult associated
their Paradise with the sun: it was a place of everlasting
light; while their Hell was a place of darkness, lit for
but a single hour in the twenty-four by the sun’s rays.
In it lost souls were tortured in pools of fire, or they
remained in the place of outer darkness, where they
suffered from extreme cold.

In this religious scene on the Cretan sarcophagus,
the raven spirits of Hades, perched above the double

axes, appear to be receiving a propitiatory offering of

blood or wine. It may be inferred, therefore, that they
could be prevailed upon to show favour to the dead.
The kings and heroes of the Greek epics were transported
to the “Island of the Blest”, while others had to sojourn

292 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

in gloomy Hades. Perhaps the Cretan who was interred
in the sarcophagus was regarded as being worthy of a
happy fate in the after-life. He was, no doubt, a youth
of high birth. In Egypt the paradise of Ra was reserved
in early times for kings and queens and their families.

CHAPTER XIII

Cave Deities and their Symbols

Demeter and the Nameless Fates—Forms of Mother-goddess—T he “Eagle
Lady” with Snake Girdle—Prototype of Hittite and Assyrian “Winged Disk”
—How Composite Monsters became Symbols—The Caves of Zeus—Lasithi
Plateau—The Dictean Votive Offerings—The Chariot of a Deity—Cave of
Kamares—The Plain of Nida—Sacred Cave of Mount Ida—Mountain Religion
—Well Worship—The “Seven Sleepers” Belief—Cretan Tammuz a Cave God
—Pillar Symbols in Crete, Egypt, and Babylonia—Pillars as Mountains and
“World Spines”—The Osirian Spine Amulet—Tree and Pillar Worship—
“Horns of Consecration” as Sky Pillars—Double-axe Symbol—Spirits in
Weapons—The God of the Axe.

“Tue Cretans say”, Diodorus Siculus wrote, “that the
honours rendered to the gods, the sacrifices and mysteries,
are of Cretan origin, and other nations took them from
them. Demeter passed from the Isle of Crete into Attica,
then into Sicily, and thence into Egypt, carrying with her
the cultivation of corn.””}

On the other hand Herodotus, writing of the Pelasgi,
says: “In early times the Pelasgi, as 1 know by informa-
tion I got at Dodona, offered sacrifices of all kinds and
prayed to the gods, but had no distinct names or appella-
tions for them, since they had never heard of any. They
called them gods (@eol, disposers) because they had
arranged all things in such a beautiful order. After a
long lapse of time, the names of the gods came to Greece
from Egypt, and the Pelasgi learnt them, only as yet they
knew nothing of Bacchus, of whom they first heard at a
much later date.” ®

1 Diodorus Siculus, V, 77+ 2 Herodotus, II, 52.
293

294 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

There is, no doubt, a kernel of real historical truth in
these traditions. ‘Che Demeter to whom Diodorus refers
is not, of course, the beautiful goddess whom the Grecian
sculptors conceived of, but rather the Phigalian cave
monster, the black horse-headed fury with snakes hissing
from amidst her tangled locks. In early times she had
many forms—terrible and mystical forms. Some idea of
these is obtained from the study of the seal impressions
discovered by Mr. Hogarth at Zakro. In one phase she
is the “eagle lady”—a woman with prominent breasts,
widespread wings, and an eagle’s head, wearing the snake
waist girdle and the bell-shaped gown, or simply an eagle
with a fan tail, and nothing human but her breasts.
Several seal specimens show that this primitive form
developed into a symbol which may have been a prototype
of the Hittite winged disk and the Assyrian disk of
Ashur. One is a column with fan tail and surmounted
by winged human breasts, above which is a round bee-
hive-shaped cap; others are variants, and then, comes a>
fully developed symbolic object, with breasts represented
by double spiral coils resting on a double bee-hive-shaped
body with double outspread wings.

In another phase the goddess has a goat’s head, wings,
a short columnar body, and spreading skirt. A god is
similarly depicted with pants and waist girdle. A ram’s
head appears on another seal impression of like character,
and in a variant the head of a “sea horse”. Winged
sphinxes recall Egyptian forms. Of special interest is a
bull-head deity with female breasts, wings, crouched-up
legs and fan tail, which may have been bisexual. This
form tends also to grow into a decorative symbol. The
Minotaur was a bull-headed god.

Composite monsters include deities with human bodies
and lions’ heads resembling those of Egypt, two dogs’

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 295

heads divided by a wing and united by a fan tail, a female
sphinx with human breasts, butterfly wings and lion’s legs,
a human head with wings and lion’s legs, and soon. The
form of the Hittite and later Russian double-headed eagle
is suggested by a conventionalized lion’s head with birds’
heads protruding from the ears, curving inward in oppo-
sition. In almost all cases the animal and composite
animal forms tend to become decorative symbols.

The “Black Demeter” of Phigalia was, as has been
indicated, associated with cave worship. In Crete there
were many sacred caves. Of these the two most famous
were those reputed in classical traditions to be the birth-
place of Zeus. One is on Mount Ida and the other on
Mount Dicte.

It is possible that these rival caves were sacred to rival
cults. Beneath Mount Dicte was situated the city of
Lyttos, which was, according to legend, hostile to Knossos
and an ally of Gortyna. In references of this character
there may be memories of ancient inter-state rivalries in
Minoan Crete which survived into the Hellenic Period.

Hesiod, dealing with the Zeus birth-legend, relates
that the goddess Rhea carried her babe to Lyttos. Other
writers were familiar with the legend that Zeus was nursed
‘n the Dictzan cave. Diodorus” apparently endeavoured
to reconcile the conflicting claims on behalf of the Dictezean
and Idan sanctuaries by stating that the god was first
concealed in the one and then transferred to the other to
be educated.

According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus® it was the
Dictzan cave which Minos entered to receive from Zeus
the code of Cretan laws. Lucian states that Europa, the
mother of Minos, was carried thither by Zeus, his father,
who had abducted her.*

1 Theog., V, 477+ 2'V, 170. % Ant. Rom., Il, 61. 4 Dial, Mar. XV; 3-

296 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

To visit the Dicteaan cave we must first reach the
upland plain of Lasithi, to the south-east of Knossos,
which is about 5 miles long, and roughly half that in
breadth, and has an elevation above the sea-level of some
3000 feet. Mountains surround it on every side, the
highest peaks being Aphendis Sarakinos (Mount Dicte),
which rises to 5223 feet, and Selena to the north-east,
which is almost as lofty. A river traverses the plain from
end to end, and is fed by many hill torrents. It finds no
valley outlet, but pours into a great cavern towards the
north-west. According to local belief, it appears again
lower down as the river Aposelemis, which enters the sea
a few miles east of Candia.

This upland is approached from the west across the
Pediadhan Plain, situated at an elevation of about 200 feet;
the mule track then winds its way sheer up the mountain
face. From the east the traveller leaves the western shore
of the Gulf of Mirabello, and following the valley of the
river Kalopotamos, makes a similarly difficult ascent by a
zigzag path.

The Lasithi plain, embosomed among sublime moun-
tains, is exceedingly fertile and comparatively populous.
The climate resembles that of the more favoured parts of
Switzerland. Neither olive trees nor carob trees grow
upon it, but the vine flourishes and the grain crops are
excellent. The nightingale which pipes so sweetly in
lower valleys is here unheard. At morn and sweet even-
tide, however, the thrush and the blackbird carol amidst
the pear and apple trees. On yonder grassy slopes are
the familiar wild flowers of temperate climes, including
the homely yellow buttercup. The winter is somewhat
severe, and it is customary when it approaches to drive
flocks and herds to the lower valleys, where they are
sheltered and fed until the advent of Spring.

<r y
rene Se
a ae

28
‘WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS, IN BRONZE, FROM THE DICTEAN CAVE

Including double axes, spear-heads, knives, daggers, fish-hooks, fibula, tweezers, gimlet, &c.

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 297

On one of the ridges of Mount Dicte are the ruins
of the city of Lyttos, and on another, right opposite, the
modern village of Psychro. Five hundred feet above
Psychro is the double cavern associated with the legends
of Zeus—the famous Dictaan cave. As far back as the
“eighties” it was known to contain archzological relics.
The earliest finds were made by goatherds who were
accustomed to shelter in it, and after these passed into the
hands of dealers, various archeologists paid visits to
Psychro and the cave. It was not, however, until 1900
that thorough and systematic exploration of it was con-
ducted by Mr. D. G. Hogarth.

This accomplished archzologist did not achieve success
without overcoming considerable difficulties. Rock-falls
had occurred in the cave, and he had to have recourse to
blasting operations. Besides, part of it is ever flooded.
“Water flowing in from the east has ” writes Mr. Hogarth,
“penetrated in two directions right and left. The main
flow to southward has excavated an abyss, which falls at
first sheer and then slopes steeply for some 200 feet in all
to an icy pool, out of which rises a forest of stalactites.”

Inside the cave were found portions of walls, a paved
way, and bits of sawn marble an inch thick which may
have covered it, an altar-like edifice beside which lay a
small stone “table of offerings” and fragments of about
thirty other “tables”, lamps, cups, broken vases and ashes.
Professor Myres found one of the cave “ tables”’ in 1896,
and another was purchased from dealers by Sir Arthur
Evans in the same year.

The deposit, which was deepest and least disturbed in
the north-west part of the upper cave, was divided by
strata of pottery fragments and animal bones, between
which lay ash and carbonized matter. The oldest pottery

1 Annual of the British School at Athens, V1, 96.

298 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

was of the Kamares (Middle Minoan) variety. In the
surface layer were lamps of the Roman period and a silver
Byzantine cross, indicating that long after the cave ceased
to attract crowds of votaries, the memory of its sacred
character survived among the people. Terra-cotta figurines
were also found.

When the upper cave was thoroughly explored, Mr.
Hogarth prepared to take his departure. Before leaving,
however, he sent some of the workers down the steep
slope to conduct a search in the lower cave. Here, to the
astonishment of everyone, a great archeological harvest
awaited the gleaners. Hundreds of metal offerings were
lying in the mud around and below the water, and among
the niches formed by stalagmite, some being almost
enclosed like flies in amber. In two days the lower cave
was cleared. “Four days later”, Mr. Hogarth relates,
““] took all the bronze pieces, amounting to nearly 500,
the objects in gold, hard stone, ivory, bone and terra-cotta,
a selection of the stone tables of offerings and of the
pottery and specimens of skulls, horns and bones found
in the upper Grot, to Candia. What I left under the
care of the village (Psychro) officials included no fewer
than 550 unbroken specimens of the common type of
little wheel-made plain cup, all obviously new at the time
they were deposited in the cave, and a great store of
bones.” *

The bronze figurines of human shape are of both
sexes. They are usually posed in devotional attitudes,
and may represent votaries or deities, or include both.
One figurine is clearly Egyptian. It wears the high
double plumes ef the god Ra, and seems to have been
deposited about goo B.c. by some pious wanderer who
believed, perhaps, that the Theban deity and the Cretan

1 Annual of the British School at Athens, VI, p. 101.

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 299

Zeus were identical. Animal figurines include rams, bulls,
and oxen. An ox and a ram with projections from their
shoulders fit into a miniature chariot which may have been
a god’s vehicle. Ona gem in Sir Arthur Evans’s collection
a chariot is drawn by goats, as was the car of Thor, the
Germanic Zeus. Models of weapons are comparatively
numerous. These include the double axe, lance-heads,
darts, and knives. A knife with a slightly curved blade
has a human head finely carved at the end of the handle.
Among the ivory and bone ornaments special interest
attaches to “three volute-like objects” which, as Mr.
Hogarth remarks, “are closely paralleled by Bosnian fibula
plates”. They also suggest the well-known “spectacle”
symbols on Scottish sculptured stones. Hairpins, needles,
and brooches figure among the finds.

There are two conspicuous caves on the slopes of
Mount Ida, in which votive offerings were deposited.
The first, on the southern side, is situated above the village
of Kamares, and is faintly visible from Phestos. Pro-
fessor Myres explored it in the “nineties” and found,
among other relics, the first specimens of the now famous
“‘ Kamares pottery”. The other cave, towards the north-
east, has been identified as the rival of the one on Mount
Dicte. In front of it a colossal altar was carved out of the
rock, but at what period there can be no certainty. Pro-
fessor Halbherr, who conducted excavations here, was less
successful than Mr. Hogarth. He obtained, however, a
number of votive offerings in terra-cotta and bronze. The
latter, which include shields, come down to the ninth and
perhaps even the eighth centuries B.c., and show strong
traces of Dorian influence.

This Zeus cave on Mount Ida can be approached
from the romantic plain of Nida or Nitha, which lies about

5 miles east of the central peak of Ida at an elevation of
o 808) 23

200 “CRETE T& PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

over 3000 feet. It is about 2 miles long and 4 mile
broad. ‘The snow vanishes in the month of May. The
secluded upland is then covered with fresh green pasture,
to which shepherds drive their flocks, as did their ancestors
in ancient days, when the grass in the lower valleys withers
in the great summer heat. Yellow wild flowers of the
buttercup variety are as thick in the grass as are poppies
in some fields of corn. This fact may have given rise to
the classic legend that the sheep which graze on Nida
plain acquire golden teeth. Modern shepherds say that
the pollen of the wild flowers does leave on the teeth of
their sheep a perceptible yellow stain. Travellers who
have climbed up to the plain speak with enthusiasm of its
cool, bracing atmosphere, and the clear starry nights of
wonderful listening silence amidst the serenity and grandeur
of the mountains. Ancient Cretans who worshipped their
deities in such places must have experienced the feelings
of awe and devotion that so profoundly impress the mind
in lofty solitudes “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble
strife”.

The practice of performing religious and magical cere-
monies in caves goes back, as we have seen (Chapters I
and II), to remote Paleolithic times, when the huntsmen
dwelt in them, buried their dead in them, and in some drew
figures of animals and demons or gods on roofs and walls.
In Crete, caves were sanctuaries in the Neolithic Age. The
~ cave of Skalais at Praesos, for instance, has yielded Neolithic
as well as Kamares pottery. No votive offerings earlier
than Middle Minoan have been found in the Dictzan
cave. The lowest stratum begins with that period. Out-
side in the terrace deposit the Neolithic fragments were
apparently deposited by water. What seems probable is
that the Lasithi plain was a mountain lake in Neolithic
times, and that it gradually subsided as its river found a

eo

BRONZE IMPLEMENTS FROM GOURNIA

aken from a carpenter's kit which had been concealed in a house it

The group shown above was t
e saws, axes, chisels, adzes, nails, &c.

Gournia. The implements includ

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 301

subterranean outlet. For a considerable interval after-
wards the cave may have been completely filled with water.
If so, it was probably regarded as sacred on that account.
Elsewhere sacred caves have invariably wells, and some of
these are supposed to be possessed of curative properties.
Drops of water falling from roofs are said to cure deaf-
ness, restore fading eyesight, and heal wounds. In these
islands “wishing wells” receive offerings of pins and other
objects, especially on May Day. Rags of clothing are
attached also to trees or bushes overhanging wells an-
ciently sacred. This practice obtains in Crete as well as
in the British Isles and throughout Western Europe.
Writing at Aghia Triadha, Angelo Mosso has recorded :
“Every day ... I passed a curious tree covered with
fetishes. . . . Near a ruined church stands an olive-tree
hung with bits of rag which the peasants tie on the
branches, hundreds of shreds of every colour, worn by
rain and wind. . . . I asked what the curious decoration
of the tree was, and was told that anyone who suffered
from malarial fever binds it to the tree with a shred of
his clothing, a handkerchief, or a ribbon, and says a prayer,
hoping to be cured thereby... . Witchcraft is common
in Crete. Rags and dirty bits of stuff, into which the
witches profess to have banished diseases, are constantly
found in the walls of churches.”! Here we have one
reason why offerings were deposited in caves and thrown
into the fire at Petsofa, near Palaikastro. The “wishers”
affected a ceremonial connection with a sacred place to
“switch on” the good influence and “switch off” the evil
influence, which was negatived by being bound.

The “seven sleepers” of various countries lie in sacred
caves. ‘They appear to be identical with the spirits of
vegetation, which slumber during the winter and return

1 The Palaces of Crete and their Builders, pp. 200-1.

go2 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

in spring. At the beginning of each year the Greeks held
a festival which was called “the awakening of Hercules”.
The god returned, like Tammuz, from the underworld to
bring fertility to the earth. Deities of this class were
supposed to be born anew every spring. Mr. Bosanquet
found at Palaikastro, in the Hellenic temple of Jupiter
Dicteon, a grey marble tablet with the following inscrip-
tion:—

“Hail, O great child, son of Kronos, omnipotent, who cometh
yearly to Dicta seated on the hyena, escorted by demons. Accept
the song which we raise to thee accompanied by the lyre and flute,
standing round thy altar, O benefactor.

In this place the Cureti received thee, O immortal child, from
the hands of thy mother Rhea.” *

Evidently the cave-god of Crete, whom the Hellenes
identified with their Zeus, was supposed to awake from
his underworld sleep each year. In other words, the
Earth Mother gave birth to him in the mountain sanc-
tuary. This young god is found associated with the
goddess on Cretan seals. It has been shown in a pre-
vious chapter that there also existed a variant myth about
a young goddess which survived in the Demeter-Perse-
phone legend. At what period the myth of Rhea and
her son was introduced we have no knowledge. It was
possibly of Anatolian origin. The Phrygian Kybele-Attis
’ myth is of similar character.

It would appear that we have traces in Crete of more
than one religious cult. But behind all the developed
conceptions and imported beliefs lay, apparently, the back-
ground of primitive religion which the earliest settlers had
brought with them and adapted to local needs. The
oldest religious practices survived, no doubt, among the

1 Palaces of Crete and their Builders, A. Mosso, pp. 201, 202+

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 303

masses of the people, just as the practice of tying rags on
the olive-tree at some spot anciently sacred survives at the
present day.

The comparative study of Cretan religious symbols
tends to show that, like the Pelasgians, the Minoans wor-
shipped deities of the underworld—the “hidden deities”
of Egyptian religion—who were “ Fates” or “ Disposers”,
and were originally nameless. That is, they worshipped
the spirits of nature and the spirits of ancestors. These
symbols include pillars, the “horns of consecration”’, and
the double axe. Withal there were sacred wells and
mountains and sacred animals associated with the “ Great
Mother” which were represented in symbols, as is shown
by the evidence of the seal impressions.

The worship of pillars seems to have been connected
with the worship of trees and mountains. In Egypt it
was believed by certain cults that the iron vault of heaven
was supported by two mountains. ‘ Out-of one mountain
came the sun every morning, and into the other he entered
every evening. The mountain of sunrise was called
Bakhau, and the mountain of sunset Manu.”+ Another
theory was that the sky rested on two pillars, and a later
one, which obtained, however, before the pyramid texts
were inscribed, set forth that there were four pillars—
“the pillars of Shu’’—one at each cardinal point. The
pillars in time were regarded as the sceptres of the gods
of the four quarters. According to the teachings of the
Ra sun cult, the cave-like openings which the sun entered
at evening and emerged from at morning were guarded
by lions, or the deities with lions’ bodies and human
heads which the Greeks called “sphinxes”’. The northern
Egyptian lion-god was Aker.

In Babylonia it was believed that the sky was sup-

1 The Gods of the Egyptians, E. Wallis Budge, Vol. I, pp. 156, 157+

304 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

ported by the world-surrounding chain of hills. Reference
is made in the Gilgamesh epic to the mountain of Mashu
or Mashi; that is, “the mountain of the Sunset’’. Its
cave-like entrance is guarded by scorpion-men, or a
scorpion-man and a scorpion-woman.

Their backs mount up to the rampart of heaven,

And their foreparts reach down beneath Arallu (the Under-

world)...
From sunrise to sunset they guard the sun."

There was a door on the cave, and Gilgamesh was
allowed to pass through it to penetrate the dark tunnel
leading to the Sea of Death, which only Shamash (the Sun)
could cross.2 Gilgamesh was the first “opener of the
way”. Like the Indian Yama and the Egyptian Apuatu
(Osiris) he discovered the path leading to Paradise, and
discovered how mortals could be ferried over the dreaded
sea.
The symbols of the Babylonian gods Ea, Anu, and
Enlil were tiarras, or mountain-like cones, resembling
somewhat the bee-hive-shaped caps on the Zakro sealings.
Temples were erected like pillars or peaks. Ea’s temple
at Eridu, like that of Merodach at Babylon, was called
E-sagila, which signifies “temple of the high head”, or
“the lofty house”. Enlil’s temple was E-kur, “ moun-
tain house”. Various deities were symbolized as pillars
surmounted by heads. Nergal’s symbol was a lion’s head
on a pillar, Zamama’s a vulture’s head on a pillar, Mero-
dach’s a lance-head on a pillar, and so on. Anshar, “ the
most high”’, was, in astronomical lore, the polar star, which
was figured as a he-goat, or satyr, on the summit of the
peak of heaven. The Assyrian Ashur was sometimes
symbolized by a disk enclosing a feather-robed archer,

1 King’s Babylonian Religion, p. 166. 2 Babylonian Myth and Legend, p. 177.

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 305

resting on a bull’s head, with spreading horns, on the
summit of a standard.

Ea, in one of the myths, built the world “as an archi-
tect builds a house”.! According to the Rigveda the
Aryo-Indian god Indra similarly constructed the house of
the universe, which appears to have been supported by the
“world tree”.2 The world-supporting tree, Ygdrasil,
figures in Teutonic mythology. Mount Meru, the Indian
Olympus, which supports the Paradise of Indra, is “the
world spine”. In Egypt the ded (dad, or te?) amulet is
the spine of Osiris in his character as the world-god.

According to Wiedemann ded means “firm”, “estab-
lished”. This amulet was laid on the neck of the mummy
to ensure resurrection. In Chapter CLV in the Book of
the Dead the picture of the symbol is given, and the de-
ceased, addressing Osiris, says: “ Thy back (backbone) is
thine, thou who art of the still heart (Osiris) .. . 1 bring
unto thee the ded, whereupon thou rejoicest. These are
the words to speak over a gilded ded made from the heart
of the sycamore and placed on the neck of the glorified
one

The ded symbol is a pillar surmounted by four cross-
bars. Budge says that these bars “are intended to indi-
cate the four branches of a roof-tree of a house which
were turned to the four cardinal points”. In the story
of the search made by Isis for the slain Osiris it is related
that a tree grew round his body and completely enclosed
it. The King of Byblus had this tree cut down and made
it a pillar for the roof of his house. Isis flew round the
pillar in the form of a swallow, and was permitted sub-
sequently to carry it away.

1 Fastrow’s Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria, p. 88.

2 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 0.
3 Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 290.

306 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

The body of Osiris was afterwards dismembered by
Set, but Isis collected the portions. The backbone was
found at the Nilotic city of Daddu or Tettu. At this cult
centre Osiris was “lord of the pillars”, and the hiero-
glyphic signs of the city include two Osirian pillars with
cross-bars. Here a great festival, which the Pharaoh
attended, was held once a year, and observance was made
of the solemn ceremony of setting up “the pillar symbol
of the backbone of Osiris”. Like the amulet, the pillar
may have been made from “the heart” of the sycamore
inee:

In his fusion with the world-god Ptah, Osiris was
invariably represented as a mummy grasping in his hands
in front of him a staff surmounted by the ded cross-bars,
and the ankh or life symbol.

Bata, the hero of a well-known Egyptian folk-tale,
who is evidently an early form of Osiris, exists for a time
as a blossom on a tree-top, then as a bull, and then as two
trees which grew up on either side of the entrance to the
King’s palace.?

It will thus be seen that the sacred pillar, tree, or
mountain was the god, or the spine of the god, which
supported the universe. As the world-god Ptah sits on
a mountain, his head supports the sky, and his feet reach
to the underworld.

The idea that a spine was a charm for stability in life
~and death is probably of great antiquity. Spines of fish
were laid on the bodies of the dead in Paleolithic times.
In Crete the necklaces made from the vertebrz, of an ox,
or sheep, had, no doubt, a magical significance. The
Ligurian and Cretan Neolithic people who carried home
portions of the backbones of whales may have believed

1 Budge’s Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. II, p. 122.
2 Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 53 et seq.

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 307

that by doing so they prolonged their lives and charmed
their dwellings against attack and disaster.

The dolmens and the single standing-stones—the
archeological ‘ Bethels”—which were set up in the Neo-
lithic and Bronze Ages throughout Europe, may have
been symbols of the god of the pillars, as well as “ spirit-
houses” of the dead. In India standing-stones are usually
erected below trees. The tree spirit may have been
believed to sleep ‘for part of- the year in the stone.

A mass of evidence has accumulated to indicate that
pillars, mountains, and trees were worshipped in Crete,
pre-Hellenic Greece, and Anatolia. The “ Lion’s Gate”
of Mycenz shows two lions supporting the sacred pillar.
They are evidently, like the Egyptian lions, the guardians
of the world deity. Cretan seals depict the mother god-
dess on a mountain-top supported similarly by a couple of
lions, and also standing or seated between a lion and a
lioness. The Cretan pillar is seen similarly guarded by
lions, griffins, bulls, sphinxes, or wild goats. When the
sacred tree is shown like the pillar, animals guard it also.
An intaglio seal shows water-demons on either side of a
sacred tree, heraldically opposed, and holding jugs above
the branches. These demons have been compared to the
Egyptian hippopotamus goddess Taurt. The Babylonian
lion-headed eagle, a form of Nin Girsu (Tammuz), which
figures on the silver vase of a Sumerian King of Lagash,
is supported by two lions, on the backs of which its claws
rest. The Anatolian goddess Kedesh, who was imported
into Egypt in the Empire Period, stands nude on the back
of a lion. The lion was evidently the symbol of the
earth, and the various figures of lions devouring animals,
found in various countries, probably symbolized the earth
receiving its propitiatory sacrifice. Myths about the
mother-serpent (the earth-serpent) attacking and disabl-

308 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

ing the eagle may have been connected with a similar
belief.

Sir Arthur Evans, who first threw light on the signifi-
cance of the pillar and other symbols of Crete,’ believes
that tree and pillar worship in Palestine and Anatolia was
“taken over from the older stock” by Semites and
Hittites. A later infusion of Minoan ideas into Anatolia
and Palestine was caused by the colonizing Philistines,
Carians, and Lycians who were of A®gean origin.

“The undoubted parallelism observable between the
tree and pillar cult of the Mycenean (A gean) and that of
the Semitic world”, writes Sir Arthur Evans, “should be
always regarded from this broad aspect. . . . The coinci-
dences that we find, so far as they are to be explained by
the general resemblance presented by a parallel stage of
religious evolution, may be regarded as parallel survivals
due to ethnic elements with European affinities which on
the east Mediterranean shores largely underlay the Semitic.
. . . The worship of the sacred stone or pillar known as
Masséba or nosb is very characteristic of Semitic religion.”
There were also Semitic sacred hills and sacred trees. The
two pillars, supporting the Philistine temple of Dagon,
which were pulled down by Samson, no doubt had a sacred
character. In Scandinavian legends the sacred tree sup-
ports the chief’s dwelling. Sigmund, Volsung’s son, draws
from the house tree, called ‘“‘Branstock”’, the magic sword
which Odin thrust into it, saying: “He who draws the
sword from the stock shall have it as a gift from me, and
it will stand him in good stead”’.?

In Crete altars and tables of offerings were supported
on pillars. On seals a columnar form was sometimes

1 “Mycenzean Tree and Pillar Cult and its Mediterranean Relations”, in The Fournal
of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, pp. 99 et seq.
* Teutonic Myth and Legend, pp. 289 et seq.

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 309

given, as has been indicated, to animal-headed deities.
Pillars were actually worshipped, being the abodes of
spirits. Ona cylinder from Mycene, for instance, a male
figure is posed in an attitude of adoration before “ five
columns of architectural character with vertical and spiral
flutings”. No doubt the pillars of Egyptian and Grecian
temples had originally a religious significance. In Chris-
tian churches ancient Pagan symbols have been perpetuated
as architectural conventions. ‘The cock, which was sup-
posed to be a charm against demons, and consequently
perched as a sentinel on the “world tree” of Teutonic
Mythology, still appears on spires, where it indicates how
the wind blows. In Scottish Mythology the north wind
brings the evil spirits and the south wind the good spirits.
“Shut the windows towards the north, and open the
windows towards the south, and do not let the fire go
out”, is an instruction given in a folk-tale by a man who
desires his house to be guarded against the visits of
demons. The Teutonic Jotuns were in the east. Thor
always went eastward to wage war against them.

The “horns of consecration” were originally the horns
of the sacred bull or sacred cow. In Egypt the cow-god-
dess Hathor was a world-deity. Heaven rested on her
back, and the under part of her body, which is usually
shown covered with stars, formed the firmament. Her
four legs were thus the sky pillars. Another belief was
that the sky rested on the horns of the sacred animals.
Thus we find a reference in the “ Book of That which is
in the Underworld” to the “Horn of the West”’,’ appa-
rently the same as the “pillar of the west” and “Sunset-
Hill”. The sun-god Ra, who absorbed the attributes of
all cther deities, is referred to in the “Pyramid Texts” as
the deity with “four horns, one toward each of the car-

1 The Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. I, p. 205.

310 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

dinal points”. In Crete the horns were of great ritual
importance. “At times”, Sir Arthur Evans writes,’
“these have the appearance of being actually horns of
oxen, but more generally they seem to be a conventional
“ mitation of what must be regarded as unquestionably the.
original type—that is, a kind of impost or base terminat-
ing at the two ends in two horn-like excrescences. Some-
times this cult object appears on the altar. At other times
it rises above the entablature of an archway connected
with a sacred tree or on the roof of a shrine. It is fre-
quently set at the foot of sacred trees.” Occasionally the
double axe is surmounted on a staff between the horns.
A horned cult object in terra-cotta, with the eye symbol of
Anatolian pottery painted on the base, was found in one
of the Cretan votive caves. The horned symbol has been
found associated with early Bronze Age relics in Sardinia,
Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and the Balearic Islands, which
were probably the Cassiterides Islands in which tin was
found. It may be that the Cretan symbol was distributed
by early sea-traders. In Syria the altar of Astarte had
horns. The “horns of the altar” are referred to in the
Bible.

The double-axe symbol was evidently of remote origin.
Weapons were in the animistic stage of primitive culture
believed to be possessed of spirits, and were given indi-
vidual names. ‘Every weapon has its demon” is an
‘ancient Gaelic axiom. The sword of the Scoto-Irish folk-
hero Finn-mac-Coul was called “‘ Mac-an-Luin”. In the
Indian epic, the Mahdbhdrata, the warrior Arjuna receives
a celestial weapon from the god Shiva. “And that weapon
then began to wait upon Arjuna”, the narrative proceeds.

“And the gods and the Danavas (Titans) beheld that

1 Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, J. H. Breasted, p. 116,
2 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, p. 135 et seg.

SYMBOLS

DOUBLE-AXE

INCISED WITH

PILLAR AT KNOSSOS,

CAVE DEITIES AND THEIR SYMBOLS 311

terrible weapon in its embodied form stay by the side of
Arjuna of immeasurable energy.”? Rama of the Ramayana
is adored by the spirits of his celestial weapons.? The
Indian weapons were all named.

That this belief goes back to Paleolithic times is
suggested by the evidence of Egypt. “The common
word given by the Egyptians to God, and god, and spirits
of every kind, and beings of all sorts, and kinds, and
forms, which were supposed to possess any superhuman
or supernatural power, was ”, says Professor Budge,
“¢Neter’. The hieroglyph used as the determinative of
this word, and also as an ideograph, is the axe with a
handle. The common word for goddess is Netert.”
Professor Budge shows that “from the texts wherein the
hieroglyphics are coloured it is tolerably clear that the axe
head was fastened to its handle by means of thongs of
leather”. As holes were bored in axes at an early period,
Mr. Legge considers that the fastenings indicate that the
symbolic use of the axe “goes back to the Neolithic and
perhaps the Palzolithic Age”. He adds: “ It is now, I
think, generally accepted that the use of the stone axe
precedes that of the flint arrow-head or flint knife; and it
thoroughly agrees with the little we know of the workings
of the mind of primitive man that this, the first weapon
that came into his hands, should have been the first mate-
rial object to which he offered worship”. An axe is
worshipped by a priest in Chaldzan garb on an Assyrian
agate cylinder. The axe also appears as a symbol “in the.
prehistoric remains of the funereal caves of the Marne, of
Scandinavia and America”. We have already alluded to
its appearance on the standing-stones of Brittany, and to

1 “Vana Parva” section (Roy’s translation), p. 127.

2 Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 256 and 381.

3 The Gods of the Egyptians, E. Wallis Budge, Vol. I, pp. 63 ef seq.

4 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, Vol. XXI, pps 340 31%

312 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE
the theory that Labyrinth is derived from Ladrys, “the

axe”. Professor Maspero shows that in Egyptian “a town
neterit is ‘a divine town’; an arm nezeri is ‘a divine arm’”’.
He adds that “‘eteri is employed metaphorically in Egyp-
tian as is ‘divine’ in French”’.?

Votive axes, too small for use, have been found in
Cretan graves and sanctuaries. The earliest form was the
single flat axe: the double-headed axe was first made after
copper came into use. Mosso gives interesting particulars
regarding votive axes found on the Continent. Some of
these are of a friable sandstone, and could have served no
practical purpose.? Small axes, which were pierced for
suspension, were used as charms in Malta and elsewhere.
The sacred axe survives to the present day in the Congo.

1 Etudes de Mythologie et a’ Archéologie Egyptiennes, Tome II, p. 215.
2 The Dawn o/ Mediterranean Civilization, pp. 132 et seq.

CHAPTER XIV

Decline of Crete and Rise of Greece

Contemporary Rulers of Crete, Egypt, and Babylon—Crete in the Age of
Abraham—Political Changes in Western Asia—Inter-state Struggles in Crete
—Relations of Palace Kings with Small Towns—Egyptian Labyrinth and
Cretan Palaces—The Rise of the Hittitese—Their Raid on Babylon—Fall of
Knossos—Lycian Tradition of Royal Rivalk—Hyksos in Egypt—Hyksos Relic
in Crete—Introduction of the Horse—Cretan Culture in the Cyclades and on
Greek Mainland—The Golden Age of Minos—Eighteenth Dynasty Wars of
Egypt—The Cause of Racial Movements—Overthrow of Minoan Power—
Crete’s Trade with Egypt and Western Europe—Egyptian Beads in English
Bronze-age Grave—The Tin Trade of Cornwall—Pelasgian and Achzan
Conquerors—Last Period of Cretan Civilization— Prehistoric Dynasties of
Greece—The Northern Conquerors—Sea-raid on Egypt—The Homeric Siege
of Troy—Dorian Anarchy—Ionia the Culture Cradle of Historic Greece.

Crete’s Early Minoan Age embraces roughly about six
hundred years, from 2800 B.c. till 2200 B.c. During its
third period Troy II was destroyed by fire. In Egypt the
Sixth Dynasty Kings, which included Pepi I and Pepi II,
reigned over a powerful kingdom for a century and a half,
and then followed an obscure period of three centuries,
during which rival States struggled for supremacy. In
the end the princely family of Thebes rose into prominence
and established the Eleventh Dynasty. Babylonia was
similarly divided into petty kingdoms. About 2650 B.c.
the northern Semitic State of Akkad became powerful
under Sargon I, who was reputed to be of miraculous

birth and to have been rescued as a babe from an ark
818

314 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

which was set adrift on the River Euphrates.’ His son,
Naram Sin, erected the famous stele which depicts him
winning a victory over a pigtailed people in a wooded
and mountainous country. He flourished about the
beginning of Crete’s Early Minoan II Period, and, like his
father, proclaimed himself “King of the Four Quarters”.
It is possible that both these monarchs penetrated Syria
and Palestine. ‘They appear to have held sway over part
of Elam and Sumeria. Towards the close of the Early
Minoan II Period, Gudea was patesi of the Sumerian city
of Lagash and traded with Syria. The power of Akkad
appears to have been shattered by an invasion of the
Gutium from the north. After these invaders were
expelled, dynasties flourished in the Sumerian cities of
Erech, Ur, and Isin. Thereafter the Amorite migration
culminated in the rise of the Hammurabi Dynasty at
Babylon.

Some authorities believe that the Herakleopolite Kings
of Egypt of the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties were descen-
dants of foreign conquerors who entered through the
eastern Delta and destroyed the mummies of the great
Pyramid Kings of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. This
is possible, but the evidence is of so slight a character that
any conclusions drawn from it cannot be regarded as
definite.

When we reach Crete’s Middle Minoan Period
~ (2200-2100 B.c.) a new Age begins to dawn over the
ancient world. The Theban Kings of the Eleventh Dy-
nasty establish their sway over the whole of Egypt. In
Babylonia the Sumerian power suffers decline, and two
sets of invaders, the Amorites in the north and the
Elamites in the south, wage a determined struggle for

1 In this tradition two Semitic rulers, Sharrukin and the later Shargan-Sharri, were
confused,

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 315

supremacy. This is roughly the Age of Abraham, whose
migration from Sumeria northward through Mesopotamia
into Palestine appears to have been one of the results of
the ethnic disturbances waged in his native land.

Troy has fallen, and invaders from Thrace have pene-
trated eastward through Anatolia to constitute an element
in the Muski-Phrygian blend. The Hittites are powerful
in Cappadocia, and are extending their sway into northern
Syria.

Of special interest is the Biblical reference to the battle
of four kings against five.

“And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel King of Shinar,
Arioch King of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer King of Elam, and Tidal
King of Nations; that these made war with Bera King of Sodom,
and with Birsha King of Gomorrah, Shinab King of Admah, and
Shemeber King of Zeboiim, and the King of Bela, which is Zoar.”4

Amraphel is believed to be Hammurabi of Sumer
(Shinar), Arioch of Larsa (Ellasar) a Sumerian city king
who was a son of the Elamite monarch, and Tidal a
Hittite ruler. This confederacy may have been formed
against common enemies in the Western Land (Syria and
Palestine) in the interests of trade. It could not have
been of long endurance. After twelve years of subjection
the western tribes rebelled,? and the four allies again
“smote them”. Thereafter Hammurabi threw off his
allegiance to Elam and extended his sway over the greater
part of Babylonia and Assyria, while he also included the
Western Land in his sphere of influence. About the
same period (2000 B.c.) the Twelfth Dynasty was estab-
lished in Egypt, its first great king being Amenemhet I.

During the Middle Minoan I Period, which is roughly
contemporary with the Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt, the

1 Genesis, XiV, 1-2. 2 [bid., xiv, 4 et seg.
(¢ 808 ) 24

316 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

earlier palaces of Knossos and Phexstos were erected. It
is probable that they were occupied by independent rulers
who occasionally came into conflict like the Babylonian city
kings. Each may have had his sphere of influence on the
island. At any rate it seems certain that such great build-
ings represented centralized power which drew into the
service of the monarchs large masses of the population.

Both palaces were destroyed at a later period, but as
they did not fall simultaneously they do not seem to have
been attacked by a common enemy from across the sea.
The fact that the first Phestos palace endured longest
suggests that its monarch was the conqueror of Knossos
and the destroyer of the first palace there.

The fall of Knossos occurred in the Middle Minoan Il
Period (¢c. 2100-1900 B.C.). Evidences have been forth-
coming both at Knossos and Phestos of disturbances in
the early part of this period. At its close the first
Knossian palace was destroyed. The later palace must
have been rebuilt soon afterwards, for portions of the
earlier walls were utilized. Probably the stricken State
made a speedy recovery. It may have, indeed, over-
thrown its rival inturn. When the first palace of Phastos
fell, its destruction was so complete that it lay in ruins
for about a century. The second palace was not erected
until the Late Minoan I Period, which began about
1700 B.c. No portion of the earlier buildings were then
made use of, The whole site was completely levelled and
covered with cement over the Middle Minoan remains,
which were happily preserved in this way among its ruins.
It is possible that this second Phestian palace was erected
by the ruler of Knossos. According to Strabo, Phzstos
was a colony of the northern State.

Before the first palaces were erected at Knossos and
Phestos, small towns flourished in eastern Crete. One

31

MINOAN POTTERY FROM ZAKRO

Including examples of ‘‘ Kamares” ware, The central vessel in the lower row shows the use of

the double-axe symbol.

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 317

of these, as has been indicated, was situated near the island
of Mochlos, where the tomb treasures give indications of
commercial and industrial prosperity during the Early
Minoan Age. Vasiliki was also, without doubt, an im-
portant trading and governing centre. Petras, on the
shore of Sitia Bay, may have been the stronghold of one
of the petty States then in existence.

When the first palaces of Knossos and Phestos were
erected the Cretans were trading with the Twelfth Dynasty
merchants of Egypt. The spiral design had become
popular among Nilotic seal engravers, who combined it
with the lily flower, and the Cretan potters imitated them.
Middle Minoan vases from Phestos are decorated with .
the Egyptian lily spiral, which in one case is utilized in
quite a new way. The papyrus designs were also taken
over by the Cretan artists, and used with characteristic
freedom. So greatly admired were the Kamares vases of
Crete’s Middle Minoan Period that they were freely
purchased in Egypt. Professor Flinders Petrie found
fragments of them in a tomb at Kahun of the Twelfth
Dynasty, while a Cretan vessel was found by Professor
Garstang in a grave of similar date at Abydos.

It was during the Twelfth Dynasty that the great
Egyptian Labyrinth was erected. Its builder was Pharaoh
Amenemhet III. According to Herodotus it had twelve
covered courts and three thousand apartments, half of
which were underground. “No stranger”, says Strabo,
“could find his way in or out of this building without a
guide”. It is possible that the Egyptian Labyrinth was
an imitation of the mazy palaces of Crete.

Probably it was owing to its close commercial connec-
tions with Crete that Egypt received during the Twelfth
Dynasty such liberal supplies of tin that bronze was freely
manufactured.

318 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Towards the close of Crete’s Middle Minoan II Period
the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty came to an end, and the
Sebek-Ra rulers of the Thirteenth Dynasty established
their sway, which became centralized in Upper Egypt.
Foreign settlers were increasing in number in the Delta
region. In Asia great ethnic disturbances, due to wide-
spread migrations, were in progress. The Hittites had
grown powerful and were known both in Egypt and Baby-
lonia. Assyria was overrun by a non-Semitic people who
ultimately established a military aristocracy in northern
Mesopotamia and brought into existence the Kingdom of
Mitanni. In time the Hammurabi Dynasty of Babylon
was overthrown by Hittite raiders, who were followed by
the Kassites.

It is possible that the fall of Knossos may have not
been unconnected with the social and racial changes due
to the settlement on the island of roving bands of pastoral
fighting-folks. These may have been employed as mer-
cenaries by rival Cretan kings. A memory of the ancient
island conflicts appears to survive in the following refer-
ence by Herodotus to the Lycians: “The Lycians”, he
wrote, “are in good truth anciently from Crete, which
island, in former days, was wholly peopled by barbarians.’
A quarrel arising there between the two sons of Europa,
Sarpedon and Minos, as to which of them should be king,
Minos, whose party prevailed, drove Sarpedon and his
followers into banishment. The exiles sailed to Asia, and
landed on the Milyan territory. Milyas was the ancient
name of the country now inhabited by the Lycians; the
Milye of the present day were, in those times, called
Solymi. So long as Sarpedon reigned, his followers kept
the name which they brought with them from Crete, and
were called Termile, as the Lycians still are by those who

1 That is, non-Greeks.

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 319

live in their neighbourhood. . . . Their customs are partly
Cretan, partly Carian.” Herodotus also noted that the
Lycians took “the mother’s and not the father’s name” —
an interesting and perhaps significant fact when we con-
sider the prominent part taken in social life by the Cretan
women.

That the destruction of Knossos was due to internal
revolt, which may or may not have received outside aid, is
highly probable. It was rebuilt at the beginning of the
Middle Minoan III Period, but. before its rulers had
attained to the full height of their power a long era of
prosperity was in store for the smaller towns. Gournia,
Zakro, Psyra, and Palaikastro began to be important
trading centres before 1700 8.c., and ere the second palace
of Phestos was erected. It was after the Knossian palace
was remodelled that these towns were destroyed.

Ere the Middle Minoan III Period had drawn to a
close the Hyksos invaders had overrun Egypt, and the
Hittites, Mitannians, and Kassites were in ascendancy in
Mesopotamia and Anatolia. Commercial relations between
Crete and Egypt were no doubt hampered for a time, but
they appear to have been resumed again. Perhaps the
island kingdom received refugees from the Delta region.
These may have introduced the art of writing on papyrus
with a pen, which came into practice before the beginning
of the Late Minoan I Period.

The Late Minoan I Period endured for about two
centuries (c. 1700-1500 B.c.). Trade became exceedingly
brisk, and Gournia, Palaikastro, and eastern towns reached
their highest development. The fact that Zakro became
important suggests intimate relations with Egypt. Sir
Arthur Evans has discovered at Knossos an alabastron
lid bearing the personal name of one of the late Hyksos

1 Herodotus, I, 173.

320 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Pharaohs, Khian, whose throne name, Seuserenra, appears
on a figure of a lion found at Baghdad. A seal im-
pression found by the same excavator in the royal villa
near the palace belongs to the early part of Late Minoan I.
It is of special interest because the subject is a horse which
has been carried overseas in a one-masted vessel. This
animal was introduced into Babylonia by the Kassites, and
was called “the ass of the east”. The Mitannians, who
were probably allies of the Kassites, had horses and chariots,
and the horse appeared in Egypt during the Hyksos era.
Perhaps the successful invasion of the Hyksos was due to
the use of cavalry.

Sir Arthur Evans is of opinion that his Knossian seal
impression is a record of the introduction into Crete of
the thoroughbred horse. Mr. and Mrs. Hawes state,
however, that they possess an Early Minoan seal stone
on which a horse figures. This fact is interesting. It
may not indicate that the horse was a domesticated animal,
although it may have been a sacred one. The Demeter
of Phigalia, as has been stated, was horse-headed. In the
Paleolithic Age there were wild horses in Europe, and in
one of the cave-pictures of the Aurignacian Period a man
is shown beside small horses with a stave on his shoulder,
suggesting that he is herding them. At this remote period
the animal was freely eaten. There is no evidence that
the horse was used in warfare much earlier than the Kas-
- site Period in Babylonia, and it was certainly quite un-
known in Egypt before the Hyksos Age.

Cretan culture extended during the Late Minoan I
times through the Cycladic islands. At Phylakopi, in
Melos, a second city came into existence round its obsidian
“factory”. Cretan products were freely imported and
Cretan script was in use. In one of its buildings, which
may have been the palace, was found a well-preserved

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 321

fresco showing flying fish skimming over transparent
waters in which lie shells, sponges, and rocks. It was
undoubtedly the work of a Cretan artist. In all proba-
bility there was a Minoan colony at Phylakopi.

But Cretan influence was not confined to the islands.
Both Mycenz and Tiryns on the Grecian mainland were
stimulated by it as early as the Middle Minoan III Period.
The contents of the shaft graves of Mycene, which
Schliemann assigned to the Homeric Age, are of Late
Minoan I antiquity (c. 1500 B.c.), as are also boar-hunt
frescoes recently found at Tiryns, which are distinctively
Cretan, and the famous Vaphio cups with the bull-snaring
scenes. The Peloponnesian colonies of Crete appear to
have been established in the Middle Minoan III Period
(c. 1800-1700 B.c.). In Beoeotia there were settlements
in Late Minoan I times, if not earlier, and tombs have
yielded Cretan, and imitations of Cretan products, which
confirm the traditions of the source of early Grecian
culture, the religious mysteries, and so forth. With
Cretan modes of life came Cretan modes of thought to a
people who were not much advanced from the Neolithic
stage of culture. It is probable that the islanders formed a
military aristocracy from which sprung the kings who ruled
the various important city States in pre-Homeric times.

Pausanias! tells us that the lion gate of Mycenz and
the walls of Tiryns were the work of the Cyclopes who
laboured for Proctus. He writes, too, with conviction of
the men in ancient days who “were guests at the tables
of the gods in consequence of their righteousness and
piety”, and adds that “ those who were good clearly met
with honour from the gods, and similarly those who were
wicked, with wrath. The gods in those days were some-
times mortals who are still worshipped, like Aristeus, and

1]I, 46.

322 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Britomartis of Crete, and Hercules, the son of Alcmena,
and Amphiarus, the son of Cécles, and beside them Castor
and Pollux.”! So were the ancients who believed in
giants and gods identified with them.

During the last century of the Late Minoan I Period
the Hyksos were overthrown in Egypt, and the Theban
Eighteenth Dynasty was established. ‘The Cretans were
known then in the Nile valley as the Keftiu, and charac-
teristic wasp-waisted figures carrying Minoan vases were
depicted in the tombs, It was during this period that the
later Phestian palace was erected.

The Late Minoan II Period, also known as the
“ Palace” Period, began towards the close of the reign of
Pharaoh Thothmes I, the father of Queen Hatshepsut.
It lasted for about half a century, from c. 1500 till
1450 B.c. One by one the coast towns perished, the latest
to survive being Palaikastro, which some identify as the
ancient city port of Heleia. Some think that Palaikastro
existed as late as the Late Minoan III Period, and was
ruled by an independent prince.

It is uncertain whether the towns were plundered by
piratical bands from the Cyclades and the Greek mainland,
or were wiped out by the central Cretan power which was
established at Knossos. The later Knossian palace was
remodelled during Late Minoan II times, and did not
therefore suffer from the depredations of invaders. It
-would seem that we now reach the age of the legendary
Minos who struck down all rivals and became supreme
ruler in Crete. “The first person known to us in history
as having established a navy”, writes Thucydides, “is
Minos. He made himself master of what is now called
the Hellenic Sea, and ruled over the Cyclades, into most
of which he sent his first colonies, expelling the Carians

1 VIII, 2,

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 323

and appointing his own sons governors; and thus did his
best to put down piracy in those waters, a necessary step
to secure the revenues for his own use. For in early
times the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and
islands, as communication by sea became more common,
were tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of their
most powerful men; the motives being to serve their
own cupidity and to support the needy. They would
fall upon a town unprotected by walls, and consisting of a
mere collection of villages, and would plunder it; indeed,
this came to be the main source of their livelihood, no
disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but
even some glory. An illustration of this is furnished by
the honour with which some of the inhabitants of the
continent still regard a successful marauder, and by the
question we find the old poets everywhere representing
the people as asking the voyagers— Are they pirates?’
__as if those who are asked the question would have no
idea of disclaiming the imputation, or their interrogators
of reproaching them for it. The same rapine prevailed
also by land.” *

The Empire of Minos appears to have embraced part
of the Greek mainland. Athens was compelled to send
its annual tribute of youths and maidens to Knossos,
and Tiryns, Mycenz, Lakonia, Pylos, and Orchoemenos
became important centres of Agean culture. The tradi-
tion that the Cyclopes who erected the walls of Tiryns
came from Lycia may be due to the tendency to fore-
shorten historical events. It is possible, however, that
Minoan traders had already settled on the Anatolian coast
and maintained commercial relations with the Peloponnese
and Crete.

Thothmes III of Egypt, the great conqueror, flourished

1 History of the Peloponnesian War, 1, 4, 5 (Richard Crawley’s translation).

324 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

during the later part of the Late Minoan II Period. In
the hymn addressed to him as from the god Amon, the
priestly poet declares:

I have come giving thee to smite the western land,
Keftyew (Crete) and Cyprus are in terror.

The activities of Thothmes did not extend to Crete,
but there can be little doubt that his operations exercised
a marked influence on the trade of the island kingdom.
Probably it prospered greatly under the settled conditions
which he brought about, as it had evidently prospered
after the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt. A brisk
demand for Cretan imports in the Nile valley may well
have been one of the causes of the commercial “ boom”
which is suggested by the increasing wealth of Knossos
during the Late Minoan II Period.

The great Egyptian wars, however, were bound in
time to affect Crete in another direction. The expulsion
of the Hyksos brought about a pressure of peoples in
Syria, Anatolia, and south-eastern Europe, which was to
test the stability of existing States. Semitic hordes poured
towards Babylonia and hampered trade; at the same time
they reinforced the growing power of Assyria. The
Mitannian area of control was being circumscribed and
Hittite prestige seriously affected in Cappadocia. Ere the
Hittites were able to profit by the weakening of the Syrians
-and Mitannians, against whom Thothmes III was battling
constantly, they must have been forced to direct their ex-
pansion westward. The plain of Troy was probably at
this period the scene of many conflicts. In the Danubian
area there appears to have been much ethnic friction.
Invasions from Anatolia and the constant pressure exer-
cised by northern tribes directed a steady stream of pas-

1 Breasted’s History of Egypt, p» 319.

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 325

toral fighting-folks southward through the Balkans and
into the northern States of Greece. The mainland capitals,
including Mycene and Tiryns, which had become centres
of AEgean culture and trade, must have offered strong
temptations to the hardy mountaineers of Thessaly, whence
the Achzans are supposed to have come. Probably the
migrations of the pastoralists were propelled by migrations
from the north. The ultimate result of these migratory
“ folk-waves”’, which increased in volume as time went
on, was the destruction not only of the Minoan Empire,
but the complete overthrow of Knossian power in Crete
itself. The Palace Period was the Golden Age of Cretan
culture, which suffered steady decline after 1450 B.c.

It was probably during this half-century of Minoan
ascendancy that Crete’s overseas commerce assumed its
greatest dimensions. The organized navy ensured the
safe passage in the AZgean Sea of ships which tapped the
Danube valley trade, and penetrating the Dardanelles got
into touch with caravans from the east. It also helped
to foster trade with western ports. The Rhone valley
route running to Marseilles appears to have been, as has
been indicated, one of the sources from which British
tin was received.

At what period this traffic had origin is at present
wrapped in obscurity. It seems probable, however, that
it was carried on as early as 1500 B.c. One of the reasons
for this belief is the discovery of Egyptian relics in
southern England. Among the relics taken from Bronze
Age graves are numerous Egyptian beads of blue-glazed
faience. ‘They are beads, moreover, which”, writes Pro-
fessor Sayce, “belong to one particular period in Egyptian
history, the latter part of the age of the Eighteenth Dy-
nasty and the earlier of that of the Nineteenth Dynasty....
There is a large number of them in the Devizes Museum,

326 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

as they are met with plentifully in the Early Bronze Age
tumuli of Wiltshire in association with amber beads and
barrel-shaped beads of jet and lignite. Three of them
come from Stonehenge itself. Similar beads of ‘ivory ’
have been found in a Bronze Age cist near Warminster:
if the material is really ivory it must have been derived
from the East. The cylindrical faience beads, it may be
added, have been discovered in Dorsetshire as well as
Wiltshire.’ Mr. H. R. Hall, dealing with the same
Egyptian relics, says: “My own interest in the matter
is due to the fact that in the course of the excavations
of the [Egyptian] Fund at Deir el Bahari, we discovered
thousands of blue glaze beads of the exact particular type
(already well known from other Egyptian diggings) of
these found in Britain. Ours are, in all probability,
mostly of the time of Hatshepsut, and so date to about
1500 B.c.”? Similar beads have also been discovered in
Crete and Western Europe. The British finds help to
fix the age of Stonehenge, the inner circle of which,
according to Professor Boyd Dawkins, is formed of stones
taken from Brittany.

By whom were these Egyptian beads carried to Britain
between 1500 B.c. and 1400 B.c.? Certainly not the Phee-
nicians, The sea-traders of the Mediterranean were at
the time the Cretans. Whether or not their merchants
visited England we have no means of knowing. It is
possible that they did. It is also possible, and even highly
probable, that during the early Bronze Age in England,
which may have been of greater antiquity than has hitherto
been supposed, there existed a comparatively high degree
of civilization, and communities of traders.

According to Diodorus Siculus, tin was carried in
wagons by the people of Belerium (Land’s End) to the

1 The Fournal of Egyptian Archeology (January, 1914), pp. 18-19.

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 327

Island of Ictis,! which could be reached at low tide. The
tin was purchased on Ictis by traders and then shipped to
Gaul, being afterwards conveyed overland to the mouth
of the Rhone on pack-horses. Ships crossed the English
Channel as early as Neolithic times, when the earliest
settlers of the Mediterranean race migrated from Gaul.
The Veneti of Brittany in Casar’s time had a navy, as
well as trading-vessels, like the ancient Cretans. In the
early Bronze Age amber was imported into England from
the mouth of the Elbe, so that a connection was established
between our shores and the Danubian trade route. Gold
was carried from Ireland and Wales and Scotland to
Scandinavia. It may have been due to the racial migra-
tions which followed the expulsion of the Hyksos from
Egypt that “the men of the round barrows” invaded
these islands in the early British Bronze Age. Probably
they followed in the tracks of the traders up the valleys
of the Danube and the Elbe as well as from the Alpine
districts towards Brittany. It need arouse no surprise
that the effects of the distant Egyptian wars should have
been felt in Europe. The building of the Chinese wall,
which directed westward the drift of Asiatic nomads, was
the indirect cause of the fall of Rome.

Crete’s Late Minoan 1] Period of splendour and com-
mercial prosperity was brought to an abrupt close by the
sack of Knossos. ‘This disaster must have fallen like “a
bolt from the blue”. It was evidently as unexpected as
it was complete. Workmen were engaged in renovating
the stately dwelling, new frescoes were being painted, and
builders were erecting a new wing, when the invaders

1 One theory is that Ictis is the Isle of Wight. Some geologists contend that at this
period the island was not entirely cut off from the mainland. The Isle of Thanet has
also been identified as Ictis. Another theory is that the reference is to St. Michael’s

Mount on the south coast of Cornwall, which is connected with the mainland at low
water by a causeway.

328 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

swept inland from the seashore, put to the sword soldier
and artisan, and probably women and children, then
plundered the palace and set it on fire. Phzstos palace
and the villa of Aghia Triadha shared similar tates.

It may be that the invaders attacked Crete when its
army and navy were engaged elsewhere. The tradition
recorded by Herodotus, which is of special interest in this
connection, sets forth that Minos went to Sicily in search
of Dedalus, the great architect, and there was murdered.
An expedition followed to avenge his death, and besieged
Camicus for five years. Their efforts were, however,
unsuccessful. On their way home their vessels were
wrecked on the south coast of Italy, where they founded
the town of Hyria. Thereafter, the Presians informed
Herodotus, “men of various nations flocked to Crete,
which was stripped of its inhabitants”. Memories of
Minoan colonies may have mingled with this tradition.
One of the several cities called Minoa was situated in
Sicily.

It is generally believed that the destroyers of Knossos
were not Achzans alone, but the mixed peoples on the
Greek coast who had come under the influence of Minoan
civilization. Thucydides says that after Minos had formed
his navy, and communication by sea became easier, “ the
coast populations began to apply themselves more closely
to the acquisition of wealth, and their life became more
settled; some even began to build themselves walls on the
strength of their newly acquired riches”. These Cretan-
ized mainlanders were subjected to the constant pressure
of the northern tribes. ‘The country called Hellas”,
wrote Thucydides, “had in ancient times no settled popu-
lation; on the contrary, migrations were of frequent
occurrence, the several tribes readily abandoning their

1 Herodotus, VII, 170, 171.

(ggz aded 025) ‘VHAVINL VIHOV ‘.VITIA TVAOU» AHL dO SNINU

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 329

homes under pressure of superior numbers... . The
goodness of the land favoured the aggrandizement of
particular individuals, and thus created faction, which
proved a fertile source of ruin. It also invited invasion.”*
It is possible, as some have urged, that Minos himself
was a conqueror of Crete, and was supported by Pelasgians
and Achzans who had acquired the elements of Minoan
culture on the mainland.

The Late Minoan III Period begins with a partial
revival of Minoan civilization. A portion of the Knossian
palace was reoccupied, and new houses were erected at
Gournia and Palaikastro beside the ruins of those which
were destroyed in the early Palace Period. Trading
relations with Egypt were resumed, and hundreds of
Cretan vases of Bigelkannen type were imported into the
Nile valley. These and others were imitated in faience
and alabaster by Egyptian artisans. But Cretan culture
was on the down grade. The island artisans of the Late
Minoan III Period were imitators of their predecessors,
and sometimes slovenly imitators; they invented nothing
new. It was an age of decadence and transition. Ulti-
mately Knossos and the small towns were entirely deserted,
and the people retreated to the inner mountain valleys
and plateaux. ‘The Cretans ceased to be known in Egypt
as the Keftiu during the reign of Amenhotep III, the
father of Akhenaton.2 The founders of Prasos, who
claimed to be the “true Cretans”, were no doubt de-
scendants of the old Minoan peoples and the Achzo-
Pelasgian elements from the Continent.

But although Late Minoan III culture perished by
slow degrees in Crete, it flourished in Cyprus. Apparently
large numbers of Cretans and Cretan colonists from the
mainland settled on that island and achieved a political

1 The Peloponnesian War, I, 2-8. 2 Before 1375 B.C.

330 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

ascendancy over the natives. Others settled on Rhodes.
About the same time the Minoan colonies in Lycia and
Caria were strongly reinforced, and for a period, if Greek
tradition is to be relied upon, the Carians monopolized
the sea trade of the Aégean. It is believed that large
numbers of Cretans also fled to Phcenicia and stimulated
maritime enterprise in that quarter. “In the Homeric
poems ’”’, says Professor Myres, “ more visits are paid by
western seafarers to Phcenicia and Sidon than ‘ Pheenician’
merchants pay to the west. .. . The wide Phoenician trade
of historic times had clearly begun to grow as the Minoan
sea-power failed.”?

About a century after the fall of Knossos, Mycene,
Tiryns, and other mainland towns had reached the height
of their prosperity. It is possible that they owed their
supremacy to Hittite influence. At any rate, persistent
Greek legends associate their rulers with Anatolia. The
walls of Tiryns were reputed to have been built by Cy-
clopes from Lycia, and Pelops, who gave his name to the
Peloponnesus, was reputed to have come from Asia Minor.
“The account given by those Peloponnesians”, says Thucy-
dides, “who have been the recipients of the most creditable
traditions is this. First of all Pelops, arriving among a
needy population from Asia with vast wealth, acquired
such power that, stranger though he was, the country was
called after him; and this power fortune saw fit materially
to increase in the hands of his descendants.’’? The com-
plicated family history of Pelopide and Atride is of special
interest in this connection. Atreus, son of Pelops, married
his son Plisthenes to Aerope, granddaughter of King Minos
of Crete. Her father had given her and her sister to the
King of Eubcea, because it had been foretold he would die
by the hand of one of his children. The sons of Aerope

1 The Dawn of History, p. 215. 2 The Peloponnesian War, I, 6-9.

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 331

were Agamemnon and Menelaus. Afterwards Atreus
married Aerope, his daughter-in-law, and brought up her
sons, who were consequently called the Atride. But this
fickle lady deserted Atreus and became the wife of his
brother Thyestes. Then Atreus took to wife Pelopea,
whose descendants were called the Pelopide. He was
not aware that this lady was his brother’s daughter.
Many crimes and calamities are associated with the tra-
ditions of these princes and princesses. The chief interest
they have for us here is the wonderful relation the tradi-
tions regarding them bear to the history of the period.
A Minoan king of Crete is to be slain by his own kin
from the mainland, and invaders from Anatolia inter-
marry with Cretan stock in the Peloponnesus. This
appears to be as good history as the reference in Ezekiel
to the ethnics of Jerusalem: “Thy birth and thy nativity
is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and
thy mother an Hittite”. Mycenz’s mother was a Cretan
and his father an Anatolian, perhaps of Indo-European
speech like the military aristocracy of the Mitannian State,
which appears to have for a period achieved political
ascendancy over the Hittites.

In this connection special interest attaches to our own
legends about the invading giants who gave their names
to Alban (Albion) and Erin, It seems probable that
these ‘giants symbolized the folks who overran Great
Britain and Ireland in the early Bronze Age. “ Alban”
(genitive of “ Alba”) or “ Albion ” and ‘ Alps” are de-
rived from a common root, signifying “white”. Were
the invaders of ancient Britain ‘“ Whitelanders”, i.e. an
Alpine folk?

The Mycenzan period of Greek civilization was re-
membered as that of the third or Bronze Race of Hesiod.

1 Pxekiel, xvi, 3+
Co 808) 25

332 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

“Their gear was of bronze, they had bronze houses; they
tilled the soil with bronze; black iron there was none.”
Nestor, in the J/iad, refers to the Bronze Age folk as the
heroes of an earlier generation who were greater than
Agamemnon and his host,

I lived with men, and they despised me not,
Abler in counsel, greater than yourselves.
Such men I never saw, and ne’er shall see,
As Pirithous and Dryas, wise and brave,
Coeneus, Exadius, god-like Polypheme,

And Theseus, A°geus’ more than mortal son.
The mightiest they among the sons of men. .

Another element which entered into the ethnic fusion
in Mycenzan Greece was the Danubian. The influence
of Danubian culture extended as far south as Thessaly,
where the Achzans were predominant. These Achzan
pastoralists were drifting southward into the Peloponnesus
as early as the Late Minoan I Period, and some of them
may have reached Crete. But their greatest migration
appears to have occurred at the close of the Pelopid
Dynasty, and it is probable that they were the late con-
querors of Mycene and Tiryns. After holding sway in
the Peloponnesus for a period of uncertain duration, they
were overthrown in turn by the Dorians.

About the time that the legendary Pelops secured the

ascendancy of his stock on the Greek mainland, Crete was
‘in a state of decay. In Egypt the brilliant reign of
Amenhotep III marked the zenith of Egyptian power in
the Nile valley and Syria. Mitanni, in northern Meso-
potamia, which was ruled by kings with Indo-European
names, was being threatened on one side by the growing
power of Assyria, and on the other by that of the Hittites.

1 Tiiad, Book I, 309-15 (Derby’s translation),

DECLINEZOPR CRE TE--RISEOOF GREECE 333

After Akhenaton, the dreamer king, ascended the Egyp-
tian throne and inaugurated his religious revolution, the
kingdom of Mitanni was overthrown, and the Egyptian
Empire in northern Syria went to pieces. The Hittites
had leagued themselves with the Amorites, and were
pressing southward, gaining control of the trade routes
from Babylonia and Egypt.

The eastward expansion of the Hittites was accom-
panied by a shrinkage of their power in the west. Rein-
forced by folk-waves from Thrace, the people of the
Phrygian area then began to gather strength, and asserted
themselves later as the Muski,! the forerunners of the
historic Phrygians. The sixth city of Troy also came into
prominence. It was contemporary with Mycene and
Tiryns, and like these cities owed its rise to the fusion of
Danubian and Aégean cultures, the latter predominating.

This was Homer’s Troy, and so powerful did it
become that when the Achzans entered into possession
of the Peloponnesian centres of Mycenzan culture they
found that it constituted a serious menace to their ascen-
dancy.

As in Egypt, descent in Crete and its colonial settle-
ments was by the female line. The Achzan chiefs there-
fore followed the example of Atreus by marrying a royal
princess, so as to secure the succession of their descendants
to the ‘thrones of the various States which they over-
powered. Menelaus had married Helen, Queen of Sparta,
and departed overseas on an expedition. During his ab-
sence, Priam, King of Troy, abducted Helen, who became
the wife of his son Paris. The Trojans were thus enabled
to claim Sparta as part of their dominions. On his return,
the Achean monarch found it necessary to fit out a great

1 Pronounced Moosi'ke. In the Old Testament they are referred to as “the
Meshech” (Exekiel, xxxii).

334 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

expedition and inaugurate the famous siege of Troy, so as
to recover the queen by whose right he held the Spartan
throne. Such appears to be the historical germ of the
Homeric narrative.

The Greeks dated the period of the Trojan war as
from 1194 till 1184 B.c. This appears to be an accurate
calculation. A few years previously, in 1200 B.c., the
second great sea raid on Egypt took place during the
reign of Rameses III of the Twentieth Dynasty. Perhaps
the absence of Menelaus was not unconnected with chis
adventure.

The first sea raid occurred about a quarter of a century
earlier, during the reign of Merne-ptah, son of Rameses II.
It was conducted in conjunction with the Hittites, and
taken part in by the Shardana, who may have given their
name to Sardinia; the Akhaivasha, usually identified with
the Acheans; the Shakalsha, who may have been Cretan-
ized Sicilians; and the Tursha, perhaps the Turseni, who
were represented in Etruria. The piratical peoples were
probably remnants of the Cretans and their conquerors.
They were defeated by Merne-ptah, but some settled in
Libya and became mercenaries in the Egyptian army.

The second raid was of great dimensions. It included
the Danauna, the Danaans, the Shakalsha, the Tursha,
the Tikkarai, who may have come from Zakro in Crete,
and the Pulesti, the Philistines. The sea force which
sailed south by Cyprus was supported by land raiders
from North Syria and Anatolia. Among the latter were
the Philistines, who gave their name to Palestine.
Rameses III won victories on sea and land, being assisted
by the raiders’ kinsmen, the Shardana mercenaries.

It is suggestive to find that the siege of Homer’s Troy
occurred a few years afterwards. The conquerors of pre-
Mycenezan Greece, having been foiled in their attempt to

DECLINE OF CRETE—RISE OF GREECE 335

overrun Egypt, sought expansion eastward, and had first
to strike down the Phrygian city which threatened their
supremacy.

Troy VI had been built about 1500 B.c., that is, about
the beginning of Crete’s Late Minoan II or Palace Period.
It was surrounded by great stone walls 16 feet thick and
20 feet high, which were surmounted by first a brick and
then a stone parapet, which added another 6 feet to them. .
The walls were flanked by three great towers about 30 feet
in height. As the stone-work has Egyptian characteristics,
it is possible that the builders were imported from Egypt
during the Eighteenth Dynasty. There were at least
three city gates, and these were all on the southern side.
Wells were sunk to the water-bearing strata of the hill.

When Troy VI was set on fire it did not suffer so
greatly, being largely built of stone, as did the second
city. The houses were, however, overthrown, and the
upper portions of the walls demolished. Scarcely an
object of any value survived the sack of the wealthy city.
The ceramic remains are partly Mycenzan, or Late
Minoan III, and partly Trojan.

After the fall of Troy the European elements in
Anatolia were strengthened. Carian and Lycian pirates
-nfested the seas. ‘There were also settlements of Aigean
stock in Cilicia. The Muski-Phrygians, pressing east-
ward from central Anatolia, appear to have contributed to
the overthrow of the tottering empire of the Hittites.
In Palestine the Philistines gradually extended their area
of control, moving steadily southward, as the Empire of
Egypt shrank by slow degrees.

The Achzans of Greece met in time the same fate
as their predecessors of the Late Mycenzan Period, the
Pelopid Dynasty. About two generations after the Trojan
war the Dorians, who had been gradually filtering south-

336 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

ward through Thessaly, gradually achieved ascendancy.
In time, assisted by Illyrian allies, they overran the Pelo-
ponnese. The dispossessed Achzan aristocracy and fol-
lowers were forced into the land of the Ionians, which
afterwards became known as Achaia. Dorians also found
their way to Crete, which, like Rhodes, was eventually
conquered.

For generations Greece was devastated by inter-tribal
wars, and lapsed into a condition of decline. Periodic
migrations took place of its merchants and traders and
artisans, and these settled in Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, and
Italy. Many found refuge in Anatolia, where grew up
Ionian Greece along the coastland of Lycia and Caria.

“Tt was in Agean Ionia”’, writes Mr. Hall, “that the
torch of Greek civilization was kept alight, while the
homeland was in a medieval condition of comparative
barbarism; Cyprus, too, helped though she was too far off
for her purer Minoan culture to affect the AEgean peoples
very greatly. It was in Ionia that the new Greek civili-
zation arose: Ionia, in whom the old Agean blood and
spirit most survived, taught the new Greece, gave her
coined money and letters, art and poesy, and her shipmen,
forcing the Phcenicians from before them, carried her new
culture to what were then deemed the ends of the earth.”!

1 The Ancient History of the Near East, p. 79.

INDEX

Achzans, in Crete, 279, 280, 328.

— bronze and iron used by, liti.

— burial rites of, xxxviii.

— Dorian conquest of, 335.

— Hammer god of, xlvii.

— Ridgeway’s theory regarding, xlviii.

— Germanic claims regarding, xlvili,
xlix, li, lil.

— southward movement of, 325, 332.

— the, in Homeric period, 333, 334-

Acheulian man, intellectual life of, 27.

— period, 15, 23.

— stage, in Palestine, 53.

— stage, lost Atlantis theory and, 103.

Achilles, shield of, Cretan references
and, 128.

Adonis, 180.

— as a bi-sexual deity, 170.

— as son and lover of Aphrodite, 157.

— Cretan god and, I 56.

ZEgean civilization, how term is applied,
IQI ef Seg.

Agamemnon, T hucydides on, 80.

Ages of the world, the geological, xix,
9, 23, 24, 25.

— of the world, the mythical, 5, 6, 7, 8.

— of the world, the mythical, history
of Heroic Age, 76 ef seg.; in Greece,
331, 332-

— the Archzeological, 26 é/ seq.

— the Archzeological, Palzolithic and
Neolithic links in Egypt, 52.

— the Archeological, Paleolithic stages
in Palestine, 53.

887

Ages (cont.)

— the Archeological, in Paleolithic
period, 23, 24.

— the Geological, duration of, 24, 25.

Aghia Triadha, sarcophagus of, 289,
290.

— — small palace of, 285 e7 seg.

Agni, the Indian god, Cretan Zeus and,
156.

Agricultural religion in Crete, 163.

— — Isis-Osiris and Demeter-Tripto-
lemus myths, 180.

— — culture gods and, 156, 157.

— — Egypt as source of, 156.

— — Mediterranean race and, 164.

_ — seasonal forms of goddess, 183,
184.

— — stone worship and, 184.

Agriculture, drought and flood demons,
xxiv.

— in pre-dynastic Egypt and Crete, 149.

— Neolithic implements, 217.

— origin of, 196, 197.

— Other World beliefs associated with,
xl.

— primitive harvesting in Crete and
Scotland, 252.

— problem of source of, 156, 164, 222.

— religion associated with, xxvi.

— how knowledge of, spread, xxvi, xxvii.

Aker, Egyptian lion god, 303.

Albion, tribal giant of, 331.

Alcinous, the Phzeacian king, as a Cre-
tan, 131, 132 ef seg.

-

338 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Alpine race (see Avmenoid race).
Amazons, in Scotland, 71.
Amber, Cretan imports of from Baltic
area, 249.
Anatolia, bronze working in, 220.
— Cretan settlements in, 318, 319, 330. |
— Crete’s influence in, 211, 241. |
— dark pottery of, 196.
— Egyptian raiders from, 334.
— ethnics of, 242, 243.
— Great Father and Great Mother wor-
ship in, 171.
— Greek refugees in, 336.
— pottery of, and Cretan, 211.
— race movements in, 197.
— racial conflicts in, 324.
— settlers from, in Greece, 331.
— silver from, 241, 242.
— Egyptian grain sent to, 241.
— the booted mountaineers of, 205.
— tin from, 223.
Anau, pottery finds at, 196.
Animal-headed deities, in Palzolithic
Age, xxxvi.
— — in Egypt and Babylonia, xxxvi.
Animals of mother goddess, 59 ef seq.
Annis, Black (see Black Annis).
Anubis, Osiris as, 185, 186.
Aphrodite, as mother of Adonis, 157.
— in Minotaur legend, 113.
— Cretan Rhea and, 174.
— the Bearded, 30, 169, 170.
Apollo, ‘‘ Mouse Apollo”, xxx, xxxi.
— ravens and, 291.
Apuata, Osiris as, 185.
Arabia, metals of, 223.
- Arcadia, Demeter in, like British hags,
180.
Ariadne, 128.
— daughter of King Minos, Theseus
and, 113.
Armenia, the spiral in, 249.
Armenoid race, early movements of,
197 et seg.
— — the broad-headed, in Crete, 146,
150, I51.
— — Egyptian culture acquired by, 150.

Armenoids, in Danubian area, 243 (see
Hittites).

Art, Bushman and Aurignacian, 39.

— during Fourth Glacial Epoch, 39.

— in Third Interglacial Epoch, 28.

— Paleolithic, has a history, 28, 29.

— magical significance of Palzolithic,
37 et Seq.

Artemis, Cretan Rhea and, 174, 205.

— Scottish form of, 69.

Artifacts, Paleolithic, beauty of, 29 ef
Seq.

— —Chellean, 13; Mousterian, 16;
Aurignacian, 18-20; Solutrean, 20;
Magdalenian, 21.

— — ivory supplants flint, 20; needle
with eye, 20; barbed harpoon, 22.

Artisan gods, 305.

Aryan theory, solar myths and the, 80.

Aryans and the jade trade, 244.

Asar, Osiris as, 164.

Asari, Merodach as, 164.

Ashur, the god, Cretan god and, 156.

Asia Minor, Hammer god in, xxviii.

— — mouse superstitions in, xxx.

Asquith, Mr., on early Cretan finds, 117.

“* Ass of the East”, horse as, 320.

Assyria, axe symbol in, 311.

— cross symbol of, 141.

— goddess of, and Palzeolithic, 49.

— symbols of, 304, 305.

— winged disk of, and Hittiteand Cretan,
294.

Astarte, horn symbol of, 310.

Athene, sacrifice of maidens to, 186.

— the goddess, in Crete, 133 e¢ seg.

Athens, the Minotaur legend, 113, 114.

— under Minos, 323.

— tribute of to Knossos, 323.

Atlantis, the Lost, bull festival of, 189,
190.

— — — Cretan system of government
on, 253.

—-—w— Dr. Paul Schliemann’s re-
searches, 99 eé¢ seg.

— — — Evenor legend, 187.

— — — geologists and theory of, ror.

INDEX

Atlantis, the Lost (cové.)

— — — Plato’s legend, 98 ¢¢ sey.

Attis, Cretan god and, 156, 164, 177,
302.

Aurignacian Age, burial customs, 40, 41.

— man, 18.

— Period, 23.

— stage, Bushman art resembles art of,
39:

— — cattle domesticated in, 197.

— — Crete and folk of, 162, 163.

— — Grimaldi man and, 27.

— — hand signs of, 30, 32.

— — magical art of, 37 e¢ sey.

Australia, multiplying ceremonies in, 36,

— ‘bull roarer” of, 40.

— finger mutilation in, 31.

Axe amulets, in Malta, 30.

— Land,-Maltese references to, 160.

— signs, Paleolithic, 36.

— symbol, 141, 310.

— — in Crete, Malta, Cyprus, Greece,
and Brittany, 160.

— — in Cretan graves, 312.

— — in Egypt, 311.

— — in Europe and Africa, 312.

— — on Cretan sarcophagus, 289, 290.

— — antiquity of, 311.

— — Cretan goddess and, 161.

— — Labyrinth and, 161, 312.

— — weapon worship and, 310.

Azilian stage, 54.

— — in Crete, 143.

— — traces of, in Scotland, 56.

Babylonia, antiquity of Tammuz cult,
164.

— Gilgamesh, Yama, Osiris, and Her-
mes, xvi.

— Icarus, Etana, and Nimrod, 112.

— “Mount of Sunset” and cave, 304.

— Tammuz and Cretan god, 156.

— Tammuz lion-eagle, 307.

— bi-sexual deities in, 169, 170.

— Copper Age in, 222.

— Creation theory in, 2, 3, 4.

339

Babylonia (cozz.)

— crouched burials in, xxxix.

— Hades of, xl.

— dove and eagle, legends of, 188.

— early sanitary system of, 131.

— earth dragon of, 174.

— history of, and Cretan, 313 e/ seg.

— magical images in, 38.

— Merodach as Jupiter of, 152.

— mother cult in, 169.

| — religion and magic in, 47 ef seq.

| — sacred doves of, 204.

— savage goddess of, 65.

— shrine offerings in, 138.

— symbols of deities of, 304, 305.

— Tammuz as son of Ishtar, 157.

— the flood demon of, xxiv.

— the great mother of, 172.

— women in, xxxvii.

Babylonians, cross symbol of, 141.

Bacchus, Osiris as, 156.

Backbone, the Osirian as symbol, 305,
306. ©

— mountain as world spine, 305, 306.

Bald Zeus, 152.

Balearic islands, horn symbol, 310.

— — tin from, 247.

Baltic amber found in Crete, 249.

Barbarians, non-Greeks as, 75.

Barley mother, the, 175.

Bearded Aphrodite, the, 169.

Belt, the magic, 163.

Berbers, Cro-Magnon type among, 162.

Birds, as guides of mariners, 206,

— of Crete, 204.

Bi-sexual deities, in Egypt, Greece,
Babylonia, Persia, India, &c., 169,
170.

Black Annis, an English hag, 61, 172.

— — cave, tree, and well goddess, 65,
66.

Black birds, as spirits of Hades, 291.

Black boar, associated with Scottish
goddess, 68.

Black Ceres, 65.

Black Demeter, 64, 65, 139, 179; 180,
181, 294, 295.

340 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Black Demeter (cov/.)

— — horse cult and, 320.

— — sow-headed, cow-headed, horse-
headed, 139.

— — serpents associated with, 139.

Black doves, legend of, 166.

Black Kali, Indian goddess, 64.

Black lamb sacrificed to Greek earth
goddess, 68.

Black pottery, race movements and, 195
et seq.

Black Zeus (see Dark Zeus).

Boar and Earth goddess, 68.

Boots, in ancient Crete and Anatolia,
205.

Bosanquet, Mr., 302.

— — finds at Petras, 267, 268.

Boxer vase, 286, 287.

Boxing in Crete and Homeric poems,
136, 137, 286, 287.

Britain, survival of ancient race types
in, 147.

Brittany, axe symbol in, 160. —

— foot signs on stones of, 35.

— inner circle of Stonehenge from, 326.

— jade finds in, 244.

— tin from, 247.

Bronze, in Asia Minor, 227.

— in Egypt, 222, 223.

— introduction of, 220 e¢ seg.

Bronze Age, Cretan graves of, 146.

— — Lost Atlantis theory and, 104.

— — problems regarding dawn of, 219
et Seq.

Bronze race, the Greek, 75.

Budge, Professor, 311.

Bull baiting in Crete, 287.

— sacrifices, 183.

— festival of, 189, 190.

— Minotaur and Osiris as, 185, 186.

— sacrifices of in Scotland, 155.

— tribe in Crete, 159.

— ‘‘horns of consecration” in Crete,
159, 309, 310.

‘Bull roarer”, the Paleolithic, 40.

Burial customs, Cro-Magnon rites, xxxii,
xlix, 18, 26, 40, 41.

Burial customs (cont.)

--- — cremation in Palxolithic Age, xlix.

—. —— Cretan grave fires, li, lii.

— — grave lamps, lii.

— — cave burials in Crete, 278, 280.

— — earliest ceremonial burials, 26.

— — house tombs, xliii.

— — in Crete, xliii.

—- — of Mediterranean race, 58.

— — Paleolithic and Cretan
burials, xliii, xliv.

— — in Egypt, xxix, xxxviii.

— — cremation, xxxviii, xli, xlix.

— — axe symbol and, 311, 312.

— — Aurignacian, 18.

— — crouched burials, xxxix.

— — Egyptian cults and, xl, xli.

— — Paradise of cremating peoples, xli.

— — ethnic significance of, xlviil.

— — sarcophagus from Aghia Triadha,
289, 290.

— — varied beliefs associated with, x]
et seq.

Buriats, burial customs of, xli.

Burrows, Professor, Knossos Palace as
that of Alcinous, 136, 137.

— — on Pheaciansas Cretans, 131, 132.

— — on pre-Hellenic words, 161.

Bushmen, cave pictures of, 39.

— finger mutilation custom, 31.

— Grimaldi man and, 27 e¢ seg.

cave

Czesar, Minos a throne name like, 114.

Canada, finger mutilation in, 31.

Caria, axe name in, I61.

— Cretans in, 330.

Carians, the, 152, 335.

— — Minos and, 322, 323.

— — Zeus god of, 152.

“Cat Anna” (see Black Annis).

Cat goddess of Egypt, 65.

Cave burials (see Burzal customs),

Cave dwellers (see Paleolithic races), in
Crete, 143, 144.

Cave god, Zeus as a, 153.

Cave goddess, the Phigalian, 180 ef seg.

Cave goddesses, 61-6.

INDEX

Cave mysteries, 182.

Cave pictures, xxi.

Cave temples, xliv, xlv, xlvi.

Cave worship, 182, 183, 299 ef seg.

— — axe symbol and, 311.

— — Demeter and, 295.

— — Hittites and Cretans and, 162.

— — in Crete, 295 ef seg. (see Dictean
Cave and /da).

Caves in mythology, 303 ¢ seg.

Celtic mother cults, 167 e¢ seg.

Ceres, 65, 173.

Charms, ancient and modern, 38 e¢ seg.

— shells as, 41, 42.

Chellean Age, distribution of handaxe
of, xxxiv.

— man, 13 éf seq.

— — intellectual life of, 27.

— — the Lost Atlantis theory and, 103.

— period, 23.

— stage, in Palestine, 53.

China, the jade trade, 244.

— tin from, 226.

Christian sites, Pagan ‘“‘holy places”
marked by, 154, 155.

Chronology, Cretan and Egyptian, 107,
192 ef seg., 206, 313 ef seg.

— the Cretan, beginning of Neolithic
Age, 146.

Cilicia, European settlers in, 335.

— silver from, 220, 240.

Cock, the weather, significance of, 309.

Collignon, Dr., on race survivals, 146,
147, 162.

Composite deities on seals, 294, 295.

Copper, in Cyprus, 219.

— in Central Europe, 226, 227.

— mines, in Sinai, 206.

— Age of in Babylonia, 222.

— Egypt’s imports of, 223.

— problem of origin of working of, 219
et seq.

— working of in Crete, 224, 225.

Corinth, origin of name of, 161.

Corn, where first grown, 222.

Corn deities, Demeter and Persephone
as, 181.

341

Corn goddess, Demeter as, 175.

Cow mother, the, 183.

Creation, theories of, 2; materialistic
and idealistic monism, 2, 3.

Cremation, a religious rite, lii.

— in Crete, xlili, xliv.

— in Neolithic and Bronze Ages, 1.

— in Palestine, xlix, 1.

— introduced into Europe by con-
querors, lii.

— to get rid of vampires, xlii.

— Acheeans and, xxxvili.

— beliefs in Paradise and, xli.

— in Greece, India, and among Buriats,
xli.

— Egyptian dread of, xlii, xiii.

— ethnic significance of, xlviii.

— Germanic theories regarding origin
of, xlix.

— in Paleolithic Age, xlix.

Cretan, Egyptian names of traders of,
214, 215.

Cretan Great Mother a fate, xlvi, xlvii.

Crete, animal guardians of goddess,
307.

—as ‘* The Lost Atlantis”, 106 é¢ seg.

— chronology of, 107, 146, 192 ef seq.,
313 ef seq.

— as the ‘‘ motherland”, 70.

— Dicteean cave finds, 116, 117, 297
et S€q.

— Mount Ida cave finds, 299 e¢ sey.

— during Pelopid dynasty, 332.

— early finds at Knossos, 115, 116.

— early trade with Egypt, 195 e¢ seg.

— 8-form shield symbol, 160.

— empire of Minos, 322, 323.

— the ships of, 199, 250.

— Totemism in, xxxvi.

— tin from Cornwall in, 245.

— trade of, with Troy, vi, 239, 335.

— tree and pillar worship in, 308, 309.

— vessels of, on Black Sea, 227.

— wasp-waist figures of, like Palao-
lithic, xx, 30, 49.

— Zeus in, 152.

— Zeus legend of, 153, 154.

342

Crete (conz.)

— sea-traders of, and Egyptian beads
in England, 326.

— seasonal forms of goddess of, 182.

— silver imports of, 240, 241.

— spine charms in, 306, 307.

— stone vessels of, 207, 208.

— wheel pottery of, 209.

— the boots of, 205.

— the goddess of, 171, 172.

— the horse in, 320.

— the houses of, 255, 256.

— primitive harvesting in, 252.

— races in, 162, 336.

— refugees from Greece in, 336.

— religious borrowing from Egypt, 163,
164.

— Rhea, Demeter, &c., and goddess
of, 60.

— sanitary system in, 131.

— Schliemann and, 95.

— sea raiders from, 334.

— origin of mythology of,.165 e¢ seg.

— Osiris legend in, 184.

— Paleolithic attire and, xx, 30, 49,
163.

— petty states of, 189, 253; democratic
government, 253.

— Pheenicians and, 120.

— pig taboo in, 159.

— metal working of famous, 239.

— Minoan chronology of, 192 e/ seg.

— Mosso and Paleolithic links with, xx,
Xxi.

— Mycenz and Tiryns and, 321.

— Neolithic pottery of, 210 e/ seg.

-— no father god cult in, 171.

— no Paleolithic skulls in, 51.

— obsidian finds in, 162.

— influence of, in Italy, 247, 248.

— influence of, on mainland, 328.

— post Palace Period in, 329.

— Lycians and, 318, 319.

— Mediterranean man in,
163.

— goddesses ot Greece and, 173.

— ‘‘great mother” in, xliv, 59, 302.

52,. 146,

CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Crete (cont.)

— snake and dove goddess, 59.

— Greek legend and, 330, 331.

— historical periods of, and Egyptian,
Hittite, Babylonian, &c., 313 e/ seq.

— history of, in legend, 318.

— Homer’s Pheacians and, 122, 123,
126, 131 ef seq.

— influence of, in Cyprus, Rhodes,
Lycia, and Caria, 329, 330.

— Evenor legend of, 187; Minos-Zeus
legend, 188.

— ‘Fetish Cross” of, 141.

| — goat and Dionysus in, 159.

— Bull tribe in, 159.

| — goddess cult supreme in, xxxvi.

— position of women in, xxxvii, 7I,
333-

— goddess of, and axe symbol, 161.

— goddess of, and Scottish Cailleach,
175.

| — Dorians in, 336.

— early aliens in, 197, 198.

— early progress in, 220.

— early settlers in, 217.

— early trade of, 205.

— earth mother of, 173 é/ seg.

— Egypt and, 190.

— climates and natural features of, 199
et seq.

— copper finds in, 219.

— no Copper Age in, 219, 220.

| — copper problem of, 222.

— Cro-Magnon gowns in, xx, 30, 49,
163.

— Cycladic islands and, 320, 321.

-— Cyprus and, 218 eé seg.

— Demeter and, 180, 293.

— Demeter and Dionysus in, 157.

— axe symbol in, 160.

— Baltic amber in, 249.

— boxing and bull-baiting in, 286, 287.

— bronze working in, 224, 225.

— burial customs in, xliii, xliv.

— Earth Mother of, xliv.

— cave worship in, 162.

— classical traditions regarding, 115.

INDEX

Crete (conz.)

— Vasiliki’s pottery and trade, 264 ez
Eqs

— Achzean invasion of, 325, 328.

— antiquity of civilization of, xvili, xix,
Igl.

— Anatolian types in, 150 ef seg.

— Artemis in, 69. :

— Aurignacian attire and, 163.

— the Eleusinian mysteries, 176, 177.

— the Minotaur, 185.

— the sacred girdle and Russian ‘‘ prayer
belt”, 163.

— the sea raids on Egypt, 109, IIo.

— the spiral, 248.

— tin from England, 225, 226.

— tin imports from the East, 226.

— pottery links with the East, 226.

— tin trade with Egypt, 224.

— trade with Cycladic islands, 241.

— Pheestos palace, 281 ef seg.

— pillar, tree, and mountain worship,
307.

— silver and tin from Spain, 247.

— snake goddess in faience, 139, 140.

— female attire in, 140, I4I.

— star symbols, 141.

— cave dwellers in, 143, 144.

— the Bull clan, 189.

— the ‘* Button Seal”, 214.

— the Dedalus legend, 112, 113, I14.

— Mochlos treasure, 238.

—- mother goddess and son, 302.

— ‘Hidden ” deities of, 303.

— Neolithic shipping, 199.

—- no temples in Minoan times, 137.

— shrines of, 137 é¢ seg.

— Palace Period, 322.

-— Paul’s famous voyage, 202.

— harvester vase procession, 287 cf
Seq.

— horn symbols and pillar worship, 309,
310.

— in the Odyssey, 110, 280.

-— the Zeus-Europé legend, 110, 111.

— Knossos discoveries, 117, 118 ef seg.

— life in little towns, 252 e¢ seg.

343

Crete (covzd.)

— links with Scotland and England,
271, 273, 274, 275.

— Minos as Judge of Dead, 111.

— the Minotaur legend, 112, 113, 114,
188,

— Zeus of as vegetation deity, 161, 162.

Cro-Magnon man, 17 éf seqg., 55, 162.

— — in Aurignacian stage, 28 ef seg.

— — the Lost Atlantis theory, 103.

—'/=—/art of, 28 ef seg.

— — Neolithic did not exterminate, 58.

— — survival of, 53, 54, 146, 147.

Cro-Magnon race, burial customs of,
xliv,

— — cremation practised by, xlix.

———— traces Of, 4x1.

Cro-Magnon women, attire of, like
Cretan, 163 (see Female attire).

Cronos, 153, 162, 173, 184, 302.

| Cross, the Cretan, 141, 142.

— the Maltese, 141.

Culture gods, 156.

Cyclades, invaders of Crete from, 322.
Cycladic islands, in Cretan history, 320.
— — Crete’s trade with, 217, 241.
Cyclopean remains in Greece, 87 ¢¢ seg.
Cyprus, 206.

— sea raids on Egypt, 334.

— axe symbol in, 160.

— copper first worked in, 219, 222.

— Cretan influence in, 217, 218, 329.
— early settlements in, 198.

— Egypt and, 324.

— influence of, on Greece, 336.

Deedalus, Achilles’s shield and, 128.

— legend of, 112, 113.

Dance, the religious, in Gournia Crete,
263.

— the religious, the Palzeolithic, 263.

Danubian cultural area, 242, 324.

—— Acheeans from, 325.

— — Aigean influence in, 245.

— — ethnics of, 243.

— — influence of, in Greece, 332.

— — the spiral problem, 248. ;

344. CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Dark Deities (see Black Demeter, &c.),
152.

Dark Zeus, 152.

Dawkins, Prof. Boyd, 326.

Dead, Judge of, Minos as, III, 155,
184, 185; Zeus as, 155; Osiris as, 111
et Seq.

Death, god of, Zeus as, 152, 155.

Demeter, 173, 302.

— as corn goddess, 175.

— as Cretan mother of Dionysus, 157.

— Isis and, 156, 178, 179, 186.

— Korea form of, 181, 182.

— Kore-Persephone and, 178 e¢ seg.

— Priestesses of, and marriages, 168.

— Rhea and, 174.

— stone circle rites of, xlv.

— as source of food supply, 176.

— the sow-headed, 1309.

— Black, Yellow, and Green, 64, 65.

— Cretan goddess and, 60.

— Cretan origin of, 293, 294.

-— festival of, 176.

— the Black, Green, and Yellow, 179,
181.

— the mysteries of, 176, 177.

— the Phigalian, xlvii, 295.

— with mare’s head, 180, 181, 320.

Demons, Paleolithic, 47 e¢ seg.

Dicteean cave, xlv, 154, 295 e¢ seg.

— — early finds in, 116.

— — Hogarth’s work in, 117.

— — inscription referring to, 302.
Diodorus Siculus, Cretan origin of gods,
&c., 156, 176, 177, 293, 294, 295.
—-—on England’s tin trade, 326,

3275

Dionysus, as son of Demeter, 157.

— Cretan and Thracian, 155.

— Zeus and, 153, 155 e¢ seq.

— mysteries of, and the Osirian, 156,
177.

— pig and goat and, 159.

— the bull and, 159.

Dodona, oracle of, 166, 167.

Dolly Varden hats in ancient Crete,
272,

Dolphin fresco, 128, 129.

— the, Demeter and, 180.

Dordogne Valley, Pleistocene man in,
17 ef seq.

Dorians, in Crete, 280, 336.

— their descendants in Crete, 205.

— conquests of, 332, 335.

Dorpfeld, Dr., on cremation, li; ex-
cavations at Troy, 232 e¢ seg.

Dove goddess, the Cretan, 59, 167.

Doves, 290, 291.

— in Crete, Egypt, and Babylonia, 204,
262.

— Cretan goddess and, 172.

— Semiramis and, 188.

— the Black, legend of, 166.

Dragons, snakes and, 174.

Drainage systems at Knossos, 131.

— — in Babylonia, 131.

Eagle, Babylonia and, 188.

— soul as, xlvii.

— asa god, xlvii, xlviii, 307.

“Eagle Lady”, the, 294.

Earth Father, the, 170, 171.

— god, Zeus as, 152.

Earth goddess, Demeter as, 180, 181.

Earth Mother, 67, 173, 182.

— — as ‘‘she who sends up gifts”, 175.

— — in Greek and Gaelic lore, 67.

— — ‘Black Lamb” and “ Black
Boar” associated with, 68.

— — Europe and, 186, 187.

— — Evenor son of, 187.

— — flowers sacred to, 203.

— — her doves, 204.

— — Neith as, 173, 174.

— — Pelasgus as son of, 187.

— — sleeping god and, 302.

| — -— snakes and dragons and, 174.

— — snakes, doves, dolphins, &c., and,
184.

— — the Cretan, xliv, xlv, 190.

— — the Indian, 177, 178. ¢

— — the pig and, 176.

Earth snake, 182.

— — goddess as, 67.

INDEX

Egypt, a link with France, 312.

— antiquity of Osirian cult, 164.

—a sea folk tale of, and Atlantis legend,
109.

— sea raids on, 109, IIo.

— as source of agricultural religion, 156.

—as source of Eleusinian mysteries, 177.

— Isis-Demeter link, 178, 179.

— Joseph’s silver cup, 240.

— Minos and Osiris, III.

— mountains of sunrise and sunset, 303.

— Neith and Cretan Great Mother, 159,
160.

— Neolithic shipping, 199.

— Old Kingdom relations with Crete,
206.

— Osiris as a culture god, 156.

— sky goddess of, 173, 174.

— snake goddess of, 174, 188.

— source of tin supply of, 223, 224.

— sphinxes of, in Crete, 294.

— steatopygous figurines in, 30.

— stone vases of, 207.

— invention of potter’s wheel, 209.

et Seq.

— Osiris, Gilgamesh, and Hermes, xlvi.

— Ra in Crete, 298.

— sistrum and “‘ bull roarer”, 40.

— stars of Isis and Osiris, 142.

— the ‘‘ button seal”, 214.

— the black dove legend, 166.

— the ‘‘fen men” and ‘‘swamp men”,
214.

— names of Cretans, &c., in, 214, 215.

— Paleolithic animal-headed deities
and, xxxvi. y

— Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages link |
| — lions as guardians in, 307.

in, 52, 53.
— paradises of, xlviii, 291.
— position of women in, 333.
— pottery of, and Cretan, 211.

— pre-dynastic bodies found in, 147 ef

Seq.

— the spiral problem, 248.

— world spine symbols, 305, 306.
— Amon as Zeus of, 152.

345

Egypt (covz.)

— axe symbol of, 311.

— backbone charm and antiquity of,
XXXIi.

— Paleolithic origin of religious cus-
toms, xxxil.

— beads from, in England, 245, 325,
326.

— bi-sexual deities in, 169, 170.

— bronze finds in, 220, 222, 223.

— Greek gods and, 293.

— Hammer god in, xxvili, 171.
|

— hobble skirts in, 163.

— Homeric Troy and, 333.

— horror of cremation in, xlii, xlii.

— influence of, in Cretan religion, xxxiv,
xxxvy, 184, 185.

— intermediate types in, 30 7.

— Crete’s religious borrowing from, 163,
164.

| — Crete’s trade with, 190, 195 e¢ seq.,

205, 258 ef sey., 265 ef seq.
— crouched burials in, xxxix.

| — Cyprus and, 198.
— survival of ancient race type in, 147 |
| — early aliens in, 197.

— dark pottery of, 196.

| — funerary beliefs in, xxxviii, xxxix.

— mouse cure in, xxix.
— Mouse god of, xxx.
—- name charm in, 33.
— naturally mummified bodies in, xxix.

_ — the mouse cure in, xxix.

| — Neolithic boatmen of, 144.

| — obsidian in, 145.

| — origin of agriculture in, 197.

|

{

| — origin of mummification in, xxxix.

— iron known early in, 223.
— Knossos palace period and, 127.

— magical images in, 38.

_ — Malta’s modern link with, 250.

— Moon god of, a healer, xxxi.

— ‘mothers” cult in, 168, 169.

— chronology of Crete and, 107, 192 e¢
seq.

— copper first worked in, 150, 219, 221.

— race blending in, 150.

346 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Egypt (conz.)

— cow mother of, 183.

— creation theory in, 2.

— idealistic monism in, 3.

— pig taboo in, 158.

— pillar worship in, 309.

— relations of, with England, 246.

— religion and magic in, 47.

— sacred doves of, 204.

— savage goddesses of, 65.

— sea raids on, 334, 335:

— Bata as Osiris, 158.

— grain sent to Hittites, 241 #.

— harvesting in Osirian paradise, x1,
xli.

— Hippopotamus goddess in Crete, 307.

— horns as ‘‘sky pillars”, 309.

— iron lore, 283.

— Isis as mother of Osiris, 157.

— the Lost Atlantis legend and, 98 ¢¢
seq.

— the sistrum of, in Crete, 287, 288.

— tomb offerings in, 138.

Egyptian, history of, and Cretan history,
313 ef Seg.

England, Black Annis, a savage god- |
dess, 61 ef seg.

— ‘King Lear”, 62.

—- early Cornish tin trade, 226, 245,
326, 327.

— in Ice Ages, II é¢ seg.

— St. Paul’s on Pagan site, 154, 155.

— the spiral, 249.

— Cassiterides islands and, 247.

— cave dwellers of, 144.

— Cretan fire ceremonies and, 273, 274.

— Demeter and hags of, 180.

— Egyptian beads in, 245, 325, 326.

— hand lore in, 32.

— maypole customs in, 66, 67.

— mouse cure in, xxix, Xxx.

— standing stones in, legends of, 88.

— tribal giant of, 331.

Eoliths, Duckworth, Sollas, and Geikie |
on, 24.

Esquimaux, Magdalenians and, 170.

Eteocretan Highlands, 268 ef seg.

Eteocretans, the, 267.

— capital of, 278.

— legends of, 279.

— ethnics of, 279, 280.

Etruscans, the, 242.

Euripides, 175.

Europa (see Zurofé).

Europé, 190, 295.

— as form of Isis, 185.

— earth mother and, 186, 187.

— the Zeus legend regarding, 110, III.

Evans, Lady, on Cretan female attire,
140, I41.

Evans, Sir Arthur, Dicteean relics, 207.

— — — early Knossos finds, 118 ¢¢ seg.

__ — — Egypt and Crete, 195 e¢ seg.

__ — — ivory model of ship, 250.

—- — — on grave of Zeus, 154.

— — — on horse in Crete, 320.

—— — —on Minoan periods, 192 é¢ seg.

__ — —on Minos legend, 187, 188.

— — —on Mochlos treasure, 238.

— ——on Paleolithic origin of pic-
torial signs, xxxii, xxxiil.

— — — on pillar worship, 308.

— — — purchase of Knossos site by,
1X6, ED7-

— — — snake girdles, 163.

__ — — the Cretan house, 255, 256.

— — — the ‘fetish cross”, 141.

Evil eye charms, 275.

Faience, Cretan, art triumphs in, 139.

| Fairies, as the ‘ mothers”, 167 et seq.

— souls of dead among the, xxxix.

| Farnell, Dr., 181, 186.

Fate, Demeter as goddess of, 176.

Father, the Great (see Great Father).

Female attire, the Cretan, 272; Palzo-
lithic and Cretan, xx, 30, 49, 163.

Finger mutilation, in Palzolithic and
later ages, 30 e¢ seq.

Fire ceremonies, in Crete, 273 ¢¢ seg.

— — in Scotland and England, 273.

— — in Demeter legend, 178.

— — in Isis legend, 179.

Fish, the Gello as, 173.

INDEX

Flies, Lord of, Zeus as, 1 52.

Folk tales, distribution of artifacts and,
XXXiv.

— — origin of, xxi, xxii.

— — Paleolithic origin of certain, xxi.

Foot superstitions, 35, 36.

France, Egyptian influence in, 246.

— Paleolithic Ages in (see Paleolithic
Ages).

Fyfe, Mr., Melos excavations, 117.

Gaia, 153.

— Cretan snake goddess and, 174, 175.

— Demeter and, 175.

— Demeter, Persephone, and Themis
offshoots of, 181.

— Neith and, 182.

— Rhea and, 174.

— the Earth Mother, 67, 173.

Garstang, Professor, on Hittite religion,
171.

Ge, the Earth Mother, 67 (see Gaza).

Gello, the Greek, 173.

Geological Ages (see Zee Ages).

Giants and gods, 322.

— as fathers of gods, 170, 171.

— countries called after tribal, 331.

— Pelasgus legend, 187.

Girdle, the magic, 163.

Glacial Epochs (see /ce Ages).

Gladstone, W. E., on pre-Hellenic dis-
coveries, 87.

Glasgow, Paleolithic race types in,
Xxxiil,

Goat, Dionysus associated with, 159,

— goddess, 294.

— the, Athene and, 183.

— Zeus and, 188.

Goats, as pillar guardians, 307.

— gods and, 299.

Goddess, as wind deity, 69.

— Babylonian and Egyptian demons, 65.

— Black, Yellow, and Green Demeters,
64, 65.

— Green Neith of Libya, 65.

— Paleolithic and Assyrian, 49.

— Anatolian and Palzolithic, 49, 50.

(c 808 )

37]

Goddess (cont.)

— savage English Black Annis, 61.

— Scottish with hammer, 68.

— ‘earth snake” as, 67.

— faience figures of the Cretan, 139,
140.

— snake and dove, 59 ef seg.

— the Cretan and double axe, 161.

— ugly and beautiful forms of Indian,
64.

— cults, women and, xxxvi e¢ seg.

Goddesses, as bi-sexual deities, 169, 170.

— as destroyers and preservers, 165.

— as mothers, sisters, and wives, 169.

— belief in female origin of life, 168 ed
Seq.

— Gaia, Demeter,
Themis, 181.

— in pairs, in Egypt, Babylonia, and
Greece, 169.

— on Cretan seals, 294, 295.

— Paleolithic and Babylonian, 30.

-— the “‘eagle lady ”, 294.

— the Gournia shrine group, 261, 262.

— the Cretan mountain, 205.

— the goat and, 294.

Gods, in Paleolithic Age, 47 ef seg.

Gortyna, 295.

Gournia, in Cretan history, 319 e¢ seg.

— bronze working near, 224, 225.

— the town of, excavation of, 254 e¢ seq.

Great Father, the, 170,

— — in Greece, Egypt, and Anatolia,
171.

-— — beliefs associated with, xlvii.

Great Mother (see Zarth Mother and
Mothers.

— — as bi-sexual deity, 169.

— — as earth mother, 67.

—-— as earth mother in Crete, xliv,
xlv.

— — the Gournia shrine, 261, 262.

— — in Cycladic islands, 217.

—-in Paleolithic and later ages,
XXXVI.

— — animal forms of, 183, 184.

== Demeter as, 157, 17 5

26

Persephone, and

248 CREE a PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Great Mother (cozzt.)

— — Aphrodite as, 157.

— — English and Scottish hags and,
61, 62 ef seg.

— — fierce and benevolent forms of,
64, 65.

— — lions and, 307.

— —as mother of demons and deities,
172.

— —as source of all life, 168 ef seg.

— — Gaia and her offshoots, 181.

— — goddess of birth and death, xlvi.

— — source of food supply, xlvii.

— — in Crete, 157, 163, 164, 172.

— — Paleolithic and Babylonian, 30.

— — the Cretan and Greek goddesses,
173.

— — Neith as, 160.

— — Neolithic worshippers of, 59.

— — Rhea as the Cretan, 157.

-— — Isis as, 157.

— — son and, 302.

— — worship of, widespread, 69, 70, 71.

— — Zeus and, 153.

Greece, Apollo and the raven, 291.

— empire of Minos, 322, 323.

— forms of Zeus, 152.

— Hermes, Osiris, &c., xlvi.

— historians and the Heroic Age, 73 e¢
Seq.

— Lamia, ‘‘ Queen of Libya”, 172, 173.

— Pheenicians and androgynic worship,
170.

— rise of Mycenz and Tiryns, 330.

— the Eleusinian mysteries, 176, 177.

— the Lost Atlantis legend, 98 ¢¢ seg.

— the Trojan war, 334.

— World’s Ages theory, 6, 7.

— Zeus as Great Father, 171.

— Acheeans in, 332.

— agricultural myths of, 180.

— axe symbol in, 160.

— bi-sexual deities in, 169, 170.

— Hammer god in, xxviii.

— historians of, and Minos, 114.

— influence of Ionia on, 336.

— invaders of Crete from, 322.

Greece (cont.)

— jade lore in, 245.

— magical images in, 38.

— mother cults in, 167 e¢ seq.

— cremation in, xli.

— Cretan colonies in, 190, 321.

-— Crete’s trade with, 205.

— Danubian influence in, 332.

— dark age in, 336.

— early settlers in, 217.

— Earth Mother of, 67.

— gods of, from Egypt, 293.

— Mouse God of, xxx.

— Mycenean period in history of, 331,
332.

— Neolithic graves of, 146.

— oracles of, 166, 167.

— origin of mythology of, 166 ef seg.

— Pelopid dynasty in, 330-2.

— Dorian invasion of, 332.

— Peloponnesian legend of, 330, 331-

— pillar worship in, 309.

— pre-Hellenic place-names in, 161,

— racial fusion in, liii.

— Rome and legends of, 188.

— source of culture of, liv.

— stone worship in, 184.

— the Gello of, 173.

— Totemism, xxxvi.

Greek mythology, product of a cultured
age, 60, 61.

Green Boar, 68.

Green Demeter, 181.

Green goddesses, 64, 65.

Grimaldi man, 19 é¢ seq.

— — Bushman type of skulls, 27.

Grote, his Hellenic views, 73 ¢¢ seg.

Hades, beliefs regarding, 291, 292.

Hags as goddesses, 61 e¢ seg.

Hall, H. R., on Aégean civilization, 192.

— — — on Cretan-Egyptian sea route,
214, 215.

— — — on Egyptian boats, 195, 196.

— — — on Neolithic shipping, 199.

| — — on source of agriculture, 222.

— -—on the spiral, 248.

INDEX

Hammer god, associated with hill folks,
xxvii.

— — migrations of worshippers of, xxvii,
Xxviil.

—gods, the Egyptian, Hittite, and
Greek, 171.

— — Zeus, 152.

Hammer goddess of Scotland, 68.

Hand lore, 31 e seg.

Harvester vase, 287, 288, 289.

Hawes, Mr. and Mrs., Crete and Tur-
kestan, 226, 266.

— — — —on Cretan sea trade, 216,
241 2.

— — — — on Crete’s copper problem,
219, 220.

— — — — on early tin trade, 226.

— — — — on harvester vase, 288.

— — — — on Khorassan tin trade, 226,

227.

— — — —onSchliemann’s discoveries,
81.

— — — — primitive harvesting, 252.

——-—-— the Gournia finds, 254 et
Seq.

Hebrews, mouse and swine taboos,
Xxxi.

Hecate, 178.

Helen of Troy, solar myth theory re-
garding, 79.

Hellenes, the coming of, 73 e¢ seg.

— Zeus as god of, 152, 153, 171.

Hera, 173, 182.

— Lamia and, 172, 173.

Hercules, 322.

— awakening of, 302.

— Tiryns and, 88.

Hermes, as guide of souls, li.

— in Demeter-Persephone legend, 179.

— the pillar of, xlvi.

Herodotus, 227, 318.

— invasion of Crete, 328.

— on early Cretans, 109.

— on early trading, 249, 250.

— on Egyptian festival, 177.

— on Neith and Gaia, 182.

— on origin of gods, 166.

349

Herodotus (cozzt.)

—on Pelasgian mythology, 166, 167,
203.

— on Pelasgians, 75.

— on the Carians, 152.

— Osiris, Dionysus, Bacchus, 156.

— Pig taboo in Egypt, 158, 159.

— Preesian legends, 279.

— the Europé legend, 111.

Hesiod, 295, 331, 332.

Hestia, 173.

Hissarlik (see Z7oy).

History in mythology, 87 ¢é seg.

Hittites, 332, 333.

— architectural methods of, 162.

— as father worshippers, 171.

— Cretan history and history of, 241,
315 et seq.

— 8-form shield and, 160.

— grain from Egypt for, 241 2.

— sacred caves of, 162.

— symbols of, and the Cretan, 263.

— the, on Greek mainland, 330.

— the, predecessors of, 242.

— the, winged disk of, 294.

Hogarth, Mr., Dicteean cave finds, 297
et Seq.

— — on early Cretan trade, 241, 242.

— — with Evans in Crete, 116,

— — on Cretan influence in Troy, 245.

—-— the Zagros seals, 188.

— — Zakro finds, 277 e¢ seg., 294, 295.

— — on weather conditions of Near
East, 200.

— —on ethnics of Anatolia and Bal-
kans, 242, 243.

“Holy Mothers”, cults of, 167 e¢ seg.

Homer, 334.

—— description of Troy, 227 ef seg.

— Odysseus in Crete, 131 e¢ seg.

— on ethnics of Crete, 280.

— references to silver cups, 240.

— shield of Achilles, 128.

— memories of Knossos palace in, 136,
137:

— Pheeacians of, as Cretans, 122, 123,
126, 131 e¢ sey.

350 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Homer (conz.)

— the Troy of, 333.

Homeric Age, the, 76.

Homeric legends, archeological clues
in, 87 ef seg.

Horns of consecration, 141, 309, 310.

Horse in Crete, 320.

— in Paleolithic Europe, 320.

Hyacinth as religious symbol, 161.

Hyksos period and Crete, 319, 320.

Hypereia, Sicily as, 131.

Icarus, legend of, 112.

Ice Ages, xix.

—- — art revival in fourth glacial epoch,
39-

— — in mythology, 5.

—— second interglacial epoch, 13;
Chellean man, 13; Mousterian man,
16; third glacial epoch, 16,17; third
interglacial epoch, 17; Aurignacian
culture, 18, 19, 20; Solutrean culture,
20; fourth glacial epoch, 20 e¢¢ seg.;
Magdalenian culture, 21 e¢ seg.; dura-
tion of glacial and interglacial epochs,
24, 25; religion and art during, 26
et seq.; fifth and sixth glacial epochs
in Scotland, 55 e¢ seg.

— — pictorial signs of fourth glacial
period, xxxii.

-— — the Lost Atlantis theory, 102 ef
Seq.

— — races isolated during, xxvi.

— — visions of, 10 ef seq.

Ida, Mount, the Anatolian, 228, 229.

— —the Cretan, xlv, 154, 204, 295,

- 299, 300.

Iliad, the, silver cups in, 240.

— -—— solar myth theories regarding, 79.

— — Troy and its plain, 227 ef seg.

India, Agni and Cretan god, 156.

— Cretan legend and Garuda legend,
Cp e

— Gilgamesh, Yama, &c., 304.

— Shakuntala legend, 188.

— world’s ages theory, 6, 7, 8.

— world house of Indra, 305.

India (cont.)

— Yama, Osiris, &c., xlvi.

— Zeus and Dyaus, 152.

— bi-sexual deities in, 170.

— Black Kali, a goddess of, 64.

— Durga and Sri, 64.

— charming of houses in, 33.

— cremation in, xli.

—- earth goddess of, 177, 178.

— father and mother deities of, 173.

— goddesses of, and standing stones,
184.

— gods and goddesses in, xxxvi.

— Hammer god in, xxviii.

— mother cult in, 169.

— Mouse god of, xxx, xxxi.

— religion and magic in, 47.

— the drought demon of, xxiv.

— the world giant of, 171.

— weapon demons in, 40, 310, 311.

Ionia, Greek colony of, 336.

— influence of, on Greece, lili, 336.

Ireland, in Ice Ages, II é¢ seg.

— weapon demons, 40.

— world’s ages theory, 6, 7.

— Cromm Cruaich worship in, 61.

— early gold exports of, 327.

— heroes of, trained in Scotland, 71.

— jade in, 244.

— the spiral, 249.

— mother goddess of, 68.

— pig taboo in, 159.

— tribal giant of, 331.

— warriors’ charms in, 42.

— weapon demons in, 310.

Iris, as religious symbol, 161.

Iron, in ancient Egypt, 223.

— lore, 283 e¢ seg.

Ishtar, 172.

Isis, as a bi-sexual deity, 169.

— as a serpent goddess, 174.

— as one of the mothers, 169.

— Demeter and, 156, 178, 179, 186.

— snake form of, 183.

— the mysteries of, 177.

Italy, a link with Egypt, 251.

-— horn symbol in, 310.

INDEX

Italy (conzt.)
— Cretan influence in, 247, 248.
— tin trade of, 223.

Jade, ancient trade in, 218.

— beliefs regarding, 245.

— source of European and Anatolian
objects of, 243, 244.

Jewellery at Troy, 236 ef seg.

— in Crete, 238 ef seq.

— in Egypt, 239.

Jove (see Zezs).

Judge of dead, Zeus as, 155; Ninos as,
III, 155, 184, 185; Osiris as, I1I e/
Seq.

Juno, 173.

— Cretan legend of, 157.

Jupiter (see Zezs).

Kamares ware, 280, 297 e¢ seg., 317.

Keftiu, the, Cretans as, 214, 215.

Khamezi, finds at, 267.

Khorassan, tin from, 227.

Kilt, the, in Crete, 215.

Knossos, excavation of palace, 117 é/
Seq.

— relations of, with small towns, 254
et seq.

— the ‘‘Cup-bearer” fresco, 118 et seq.

— drainage system of, 131.

— early discoveries at, 115, 116.

— early pottery of, 210 é seg.

— earliest settlement at, xix, 162, 163.

— history of, 315 ¢¢ seg.

— Odysseus in, 132 ef seg.

— Phzestos and, 282 ef seg.

— sack of, 327.

— the palace of, shrines in, 137.

Kore-Persephone, 178 e7¢ seq.

— Demeter and, 181, 182.

Labyrinth, the Egyptian, 317.

— origin of name, 161.

— axe symbol and, 312.

— the, Theseus and, 113.

‘* Lady of wild creatures”, 59.
Lamia, ‘‘ Queen of Libya”, 172, 173.

354

Lang, Andrew, xxii.

— — sonnet on Homeric unity, 94.

Language, race problems and, liii, liv.

Layard, Sir A. H., services to Schlic-
mann, 94.

Libya, black dove legend and, 166.

— Crete and, 190, 217.

— Europeans in, 334.

— Lamia, queen of, 172, 173.

Libyan shield, as symbol in Crete and
Greece, 159, 160.

Libyans, in Crete, 162.

Life, female origin of, 168 é¢ seg.

— theory of male origin of, 170, 171.

Lightning, Lord of, Zeus as, 169.

Lion gate of Mycenze, 89 é seg., 307,
321.

Lion god, 303.

— Tammuz and, 307.

— the, Rhea and, 173.

Lions and ‘‘ mother goddess ”, 59, 60.

— and “world spine”, 307.

— in mythology, 89, 90.

— Cretan goddess and, 307.

Liparite, vessels of, 208.

Lost Atlantis, the, Crete as, 106 e¢
Seq.

Love goddess, Demeter as, 176 (see
Goddesses).

Luck balls, 275.

Luck lines, 33, 34.

Lycia, Cretans in, 330.

Lycians, 335.

— the, Crete and, 318, 319.

Lydia, axe name in, 161.

— silver from, 240.

Lyttos, 295.

Macedonia, Neolithic culture in, 242.

Mackenzie, Dr. Duncan, as Sir Arthur
Evans’s assistant, 117.

— — — on black pottery, 198.

— — — on early tin trade, 225, 226.

— —-— on history in Cretan pottery,
210 ef seq.

Mafflian stage of culture, 23.

Magasa, Neolithic folk in, 144, 162.

ob]

Magdalenian stage, 23.

— — art revival in, 39, 40.

— — “bull roarer” in, 40.

— — survival of men of, 55.

Magic and art, 37 é¢ seg.

— source of, 42, 43.

— early conceptions of, 43, 44.

— religion and, 44 ef seq.

Magical charms for dead and living, 41,
42.

Male origin of life, 170, 171.

Malta, axe symbol in, 160, 312.

— boats of, with Horus eyes, 250.

— jade in, 244, 245.

— Paleolithic man in, 51, 52.

— steatopygous figurines and axe amu-
lets of, 30.

Marriages, magical customs associated
with, 33.

Marseilles, Cretans and, 247, 325.

Maspero, 214, 223.

— on Keftiu, 215.

Maternity in religion, 167 ef seg. (see
Great Mother).

Mauer, Pleistocene skull found at, I1.

Maypole customs, 66.

Mediterranean race, Cretans and Iberi-
ans, 247.

— — inCrete, 52, 146, 163.

— — in Europe and Africa, 58.

— — in Troy, 242.

— — early migrations of, 148 ef seg.

— — Lost Atlantis theory and, 103.

— — origin and distribution of, 57, 58.

— — Paleolithic races and, 50.

— — religion of, 164.

— — Sergi’s theory regarding, 147.

— — proto-Egyptian graves, 147 ef seg.

Melos, in Cretan history, 320, 32I.

— the Phylakopi fish fresco, 259.

— Crete’s Neolithic sea trade with, xviii,
145, 162, 216 e¢ seg., 265, 284.

— Dr. D. Mackenzie’s work on, I17.

— Phestos and, 284.

— Vasiliki and, 265.

Menelaus, in Egyptian history, 333.

Mesyvinian stage of culture, 23.

CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Mexico, jade lore in, 245.

— late introduction of metal working
in, 104.

—the Lost Atlantis legend and, 98 e¢seg.

Miller, Hugh, his theory regarding ori-
gins of myths, xxii.

Minerva, in Cretan legend, 157.

Minoa, cities called, 328.

Minoan Ages, review of, 313 é7 seg.

— — Egyptian and Babylonian history
during, 313 ef seg.

— Periods, Sir Arthur Evans’s division
of, 192 ef seg.

Minos, 328, 330.

—as a judge in Hades, 111, 155, 184,
185.

—as ruler of Crete and Cyclades, 77,
II0, 126, 318, 322, 323.

— as semi-divine patriarch, 187.

— Zeus and, 187, 188.

— inventor of science of jurisprudence,
117.

— Bull clan of, 189.

— King, as son of Zeus, 97, III, 295.

— — period of, IIo.

— — Thucydides on, 77.

— legends of, 126, 318.

— Minotaur and, 190.

— Osiris and, 184.

— palace of, excavated, 121 ef seg.

— throne of, 122 é seg.

— probably a throne name, I14.

— the Homeric Alcinous as, 132.

Minotaur, Bull clan and, 189.

— Minos and, 97, 187, 188, 190, 295.

— Osiris and, 185, 188.

— the, Cretan legend of, 112, 113.

Mitanni, in Greek history, 332, 333-

Mithra, as a bi-sexual deity, 170.

Mochlos, island of, treasure found on,
238, 239, 240, 266, 317.

Monism, materialistic and idealistic, 2, 3.

Mosso, Angelo, 223, 226, 312.

— — on Crete’s natural beauties, 282.

— — on Crete’s ships, 250.

—w—on Egynpt’s relations with Eng-
land, 246.

INDEX

Mosso, Angelo (cov?.)

—— — on finds at Phestos, 283.

— — views on Cretan and Paleolithic
cultures, Xx, XX1.

— — wishing wells, 301.

Mother goddess at Pheestos, 283.

— — at Presos, 280.

— — in Cycladic islands, 217.

— — Paleolithic carvings of, 2r.

— — the Gournia shrine, 261, 262.

— of the gods, Rhea as, 173.

— the Great (see Great Mother).

Mothers, the, 175.

— — cults of, 167 e seg.

— — cult of, in Egypt, 169.

— — Gaia, Demeter, &c., 181, 182.

— — in Crete, 172.

Mouliana, finds at, 267.

Mount Ida (see /da).

— Dicte (see Dicte).

Mountain as “‘ world spine”, 305.

Mountain goddess, 205.

— — Cretan and the Scottish, 175.

— — Cretan goddess as, 172.

— — the Cretan, 307.

Mountain temples, 304.

Mountain worship, 303 ¢/ seq.

Mountains of sunrise and sunset, 303 ¢¢
Seq.

Mouse, in Greece, 161.

— cure, antiquity of, xxxii.

— — in Egypt, England, and Scotland,
xxix.

— gods, source of diseases and cures,
xxi.

— gods, Thoth and Apollo as, xxx.

— superstitions, condemned by Isaiah,
xxxi.

Mousterian man, 16 é7 seg.

— — in Malta, 51, 52.

— — surviving traces of, 54.

— stage, 23.

— — in Pheenicia, 53.

— — burial customs in, 40.

_— — Lost Atlantis theory and, 103.

Miiller, Max, on jade trade, 244.

— — solar myth theories of, 79 ef seg.

S555

Miiller, W. M., on tin trade, 224, 226.

Musical instruments in-Crete, 283.

Mycenz, 332, 333-

— the ‘‘lion gate”, 89 e¢ seg., 307, 321.

— axe symbol in, 160.

— Crete and, 191 e¢ seg., 321, 323, 325.

— discoveries at, 87 e¢ seg.

— ethnics of, 331.

— Minoan empire and, 323, 325.

— prosperity of, 330.

Myres, Prof., 271 eZ seg., 297.

Mysteries, the Eleusinian, 176, 177.

— the Greek, Osiris and, 156.

— — — Proclus on, 157.

— the Isis, 177.

— the Demeter, 176, 177.

Mysticism, in Egypt and Greece, 1 56,
157.

Mythology, Cretan legend of Zeus, 153
et Seq.

— Creation theories, 2, 3.

— ‘dangerous gods”, 185, 186.

— Egyptian influences in Crete, XXXIV,
XXXV.

— records of processes, 187, 188.

— Zeus and Minos, 110, III.

— Minos as Judge of Dead, 111.

— the Minotaur, 112.

— comparative study of, xxiii, 78.

— experiences reflected in, Xxiv, XXV,
72.

— early Greek history in, 73 ¢/ seq.

— early history in, 330, 331, 332.

— Herodotus on, 165 ¢¢ seg.

— historical legends in, 87 e/ seq.

— Miller’s theory regarding, xxii.

— political aspect of, 2.

— primitive elements in, 184.

— traces of savagery in, 60, 61.

Naturalism, in India, xxxv.

Needle, invention of first with eye, 20.
Neith, 182.

— as a bi-sexual deity, 169.

Neolithic Age, at Phzestos, 282 e¢ seg.
— — in Danubian area, 242.

— — in Troy, 230 e¢ seg.

354 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Neolithic Age (covz.)

-— — links with Paleolithic in Egypt,

52.
— — beginning of, in Crete, 146.
— — burial customs of, xxxix.
— — cremation custom in, xlix e¢ seg.
— — Crete and Troy in, 216 ef seg.
— — Cycladic islands in, 217 e¢ seg.
— — English shipping in, 327.
-- — Paleolithic and, xix, 50.
— — Paleolithic links with, 57.
— — pottery of, in Crete, 210 ef seg.
— axe symbol, 311.
Neolithic culture, links with Palzeolithic,
52-5.
Neolithic man, as an agriculturist, 149.
— — traces of, in Crete, 144, 146.
— — Paleeolithic and, 50.
— — the Great Mother, 172.
Neolithic Period, in Crete, 162, 163.
Neolithic races, in Somaliland and Bri-
tain, 58.
Nida, Plain of, 299, 300.
Nimrod, Cretan legend and, 112.

Obsidian, in Malta, 218.

— Cretan trade with Melos, xviii, 145,
162, 196, 216, 217, 265, 284.

— finds in Crete, Greece, Cyprus,
Egypt, and Troy, 145.

— artifacts of, 144, 145.

— Cretan trade in, 196, 217.

— finds of, at Phzestos, 284.

Odin, Zeus, and, 152.

Odysseus, 122, 123.

— in Crete, 132 ef seg.

— solar myth theory regarding, 79.

~—— sea adventures of, 202.

Odyssey, the, 79.

— — Crete in, r10.

— — land and sea breezes in, 201.

— — ethnics of Crete, 280.

— — Pheeacians as Cretans, 122, 123,
131 ef seg.

— — the silver cup, 240.

Ornaments as charms, 41, 42.

Osiris, 172.

Osiris (cont. )

— as culture god and source of life, 156,
Sz.

— asa ‘‘dangerous god”, 185, 186.

; —as Bacchus (Dionysus), 156.

— backbone symbol, 305, 306.

| — agricultural paradise of, x1.
| — antiquity of cult of, 164.

— Bata and, 158.

— Crete and, 184, 185.

— Minos and, 111, 114.

— mysteries of, 156, 177.

— the pig and, 158, 159.

— Triptolemus and, 180.

Otherworld beliefs, in various coun-
tries, xxxix.

— burial customs and, xl e¢ seg.

Palace period in Crete, 322.

— — end of, 329.

Palaces (see Awossos and Phestos); the
Gournia palace, 262, 263.

Palzolithic Age, in Palestine, 53.

—— links with Neolithic in Egypt,
52.

— — Neolithic links with, 57.

— — paintings in caves, xlv.

— — animal-headed deities in, xxxvi.

— — burial customs in, xxxii.

— — cattle domesticated in, 197.

— — race types of, in Scotland, xxxiii.

— — script of, xxxii.

Paleolithic Ages, dating of, xix.

—-— Mosso on Cretan links with, xx,
Xxl,

— — myths and tales of, xxii, xxiii.

— attire, Cretan and, xx, 30, 49, 163.

— axe symbol, 311.

— bull roarer, 4o.

— caves, 162, 182.

— charms, 41, 42.

— culture, links with Neolithic, 52,
53:

—— — Azilian stage in France, 54, 55.

Paleolithic magic, in modern times, 38.

Paleolithic man, Chellean stage, 13;
Mousterian stage, 16; Aurignacian

INDEX

Paleolithic man {coz?.)
stage, 18-20; Solutrean culture, 20;
Magdalenian stage, 21 ef seg.

—— Cro-Magnon type survives, 53, 54.

— — religion and magic, 44 eé¢ seg.

— — gods and demons of, 47 é¢ seg.

— — intellectual life of, 26.

— — Lost Atlantis theory and, 103.

— — Neolithic and, 50.

— — traces of, in Malta, 51, 52.

Paleolithic races, in Anatolia, 242.

Palaikastro, in Cretan history, 319 éf
Seq.

— excavations at, 269 é7 seg.

— Bay of, as ‘‘The Fair Havens”,
269.

— votive figurines near, 271 e¢ seg.

— Hellenic inscription at, 302.

Palestine, cave dwellers in, 144.

— cremation in, xlix, ], lii.

— Hammer god in, xxviii.

— Mediterranean race in, 148, 149.

— Palzolithic stages in, 53.

Pan, the search of for Demeter, 179.

Parliament, Europe’s first, 253.

Paros, Crete and, 217.

Paul, St., Palaikastro as ‘‘The Fair
Havens”, 269. ;

— — the famous voyage of, 202.

Pausanias, 321.

— on Pelasgus, 187.

— the Black Demeter, 180.

— legends of, as archzeological clues, 87
et Seq.

Pelasgians, 303.

— in Crete, 279, 280.

— in legend and history, 74 et seg.

— gods of, 293.

— mythology of, 166, 167.

Pelasgus, an eponymous ancestor, 187.

Pelopid dynasty in Greece, 330-2.

Persephone, 178 e7 seg., 302.

Persia, bi-sexual deities in, 170.

Persians, fire a god among, xlii, xliii.

Petias, finds at, 267 ef seg.

Petrie, Prof. Flinders, 195, 196, 317.

Petsofa, votive figurines at, 271 ef seg.

355

Phzeacians, the, of Odyssey, Cretans as,
122, 123, 126, 131 ed seg.

Pheestos, in Cretan history, 316 e¢ seg.

— link with Troy, 239.

— early pottery of, 212 e¢ seg.

— excavations of palace of, 281 ef seg.

Pharaoh, Minos and, 114.

Phigalia, Demeter figure in, 179, 180
(see Demeter).

Philistines, 162, 334, 335-

— mouse beliefs among, xxxi.

Phoenicia, cave dwellers in, 144.

— cave worship in, 162.

— early Egyptian trade with, 218.

Phoenicians, Cretans predecessors of,
120.

— as successors of Cretans, 330.

— Ionia and the, 336.

— religious ideas of, 170.

Phrygia, 333, 335

Pig, in Eleusinian mysteries, 176.

—tabooed in Egypt, Crete, Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland, 159.

— the Egyptian taboo, 158.

— the Hebrew taboo, xxxi.

— Cretan Zeus-Dionysus and the, 159.

— Demeter and the, 139, 183.

— Earth Mother and, 183.

— earth spirits and, 176.

— Pelasgus and, 137.

— votive figurines of, in Crete, 275.

—- Zeus and, 188.

Pillar worship, 303, 307, 308, 309.

— — world spine symbols, 305.

Pillars, ‘“‘horns of consecration” and,
309.

Piltdown skull, 15.

Pindar, on female origin of life, 168.

Plato, 189, 190, 253.

— the Eleusinian mysteries, 176.

— the Evenor legend, 187.

— the Lost Atlantis legend, 98 e/ seg.

Pleistocene Age, 9.

— — visions of, 10 é¢ seq.

—-—the Lost Atlantis legend and,
102,

Pliny, 246.

356 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Pluto, in Demeter-Persephone legend,
178 ¢ét seq.

Poseidon, 173.

— in Cretan legend, 112, 187.

— bull and, 189.

Potter’s wheel, invention of, 209.

Pottery, earliest in Cyprus, 219.

— from Palaikastro, 270 eé/ seg.

— from Zakro, 277.

— Trojan and Danubian, 242.

— from Gournia, 260 é¢ seg.

— from Vasiliki, 264 e¢ seg.

— Kamares, 297, 298, 299.

— from Przesos, 278 ef seg.

— discoveries of, at Troy, 231 ef seg.

— Cretan, in southern Turkestan, 226.

— history in Cretan, 210 ef seg.

— symbolic decoration of, 234.

— the primitive black, race movements
and, 195 é¢ seq.

Preesos, 328.

— capital of Eteocretans, 278.

— legends of, 279.

— excavations at, 278 e¢ seg.

— ethnics of, 279, 280.

Priestesses, on Cretan sarcophagus, 289,
290.

Psyra, island of, 266, 267, 319.

Pumpelly expeditions, 196, 197, 226.

Races (see Mediterranean Race).

— early settlers in Crete, 143, 144.

— in Crete, 162.

— in Troy, 242.

— Lost Atlantis theory, 98 e¢ seg.,
103.

— Paleolithic and Neolithic, 50.

‘— Paleolithic and Neolithic, meet in
Europe, 57.

— Paleolithic survivals, xxi, 53, 54.

— survival of early peoples, 146, 147
et seq.

— the Mediterranean race in Crete, 146.

— broad heads in, 146.

— types fixed at dawn of Neolithic Age,
XXV, XXVi.

— linguistic traces of, liii, liv.

Races (cont.)

— movements of, in Neolithic and
Bronze Ages, 147 ef seg.

—the Paleolithic, I1 e¢ seg., 26 et
Seq.

— steatopygous figurines as evidence
regarding, 30.

— women’s position in different, xxxvii.

— world’s ages theory and, 7, 8.

Rain, god of, Zeus as, 152.

Ravens, deities and, 290, 291.

Reindeer in Britain, 55.

Reisner, Dr., copper-working in Egypt,
221, 222.

Religion and magic, 44 e¢ seg.

Religious development, not the same
everywhere, xxxv ¢f seg.

Rhadamanthus, brother of Minos, 111.

— Pheacian-Cretan link, 132.

Rhea, as Cretan Great Mother goddess,
157.

— as mother of Zeus, 153.

— Cretan form of, 173.

— Cretan goddess and, 60.

— Demeter and, 175, 182.

— Jupiter (Zeus), and, 302.

— lion of, xlvii.

— the pre-Hellenic, 174.

Rhodes, 336.

— Cretan settlements in, 330.

Ripley, Professor, on Cro-Magnon type,
162.

Rome, magical images in, 38.

— prehistoric Greek legends in, 188.

Russia, “ prayer belt” of, 163.

Sailors, god of, Zeus as, 152.

Sanitary systems, the ancient, at Knos-
sos, Crete, 131; the Babylonian, 131.

Sarcophagus, from Aghia Triadha, 289,
290.

Sardinia, 336.

Sarpedon, brother of Minos, 111.

— revolt of, 318.

Savagery, in mythology, 60, 61.

Sayce, Professor, cross symbol of Baby-
lonia, 141.

INDEX

Scandinavia, Cretan god and Frey, 156.

— Freya a bi-sexual duty, 169.

— gold from Ireland, Scotland, and
Wales, 327.

— Odin, Tyr, and Zeus, 152.

— Thor as world shaper, 88.

— world’s ages theory, 6.

— Ymer, the earth father, 170.

— axe symbol in, 311.

— Creation theory in, 3, 4.

— Hammer god in, xxvii.

— hand lore in, 32.

— tree worship in, 308.

Scef, 164.

— Cretan god and, 156.

— Tammuz and, xxvii.

Schliemann, Heinrich, 115.

— — excavations at Troy, 230 ef seg.

— — the Lost Atlantis legend, 98 e¢ seg.

— — life and discoveries of, 81 ef seg.

— — on jade finds, 243, 244.

— Dr. Paul, the Lost Atlantis theory,

Scotland, beliefs regarding winds and
spirits, 309.

— Cailleach and Cretan goddess, 175.

— ‘corp chreadh”, 38.

— Cretan ‘‘dolphin fresco” and ‘‘swim-
ming elephant”, on sculptured stones,
129 2.

— mouse cure in, xxix, xxx, xxxi.

— Neolithic ploughs in, 217.

— Osirian paradise in, xl.

— Paleolithic survivals in, 56.

— pig taboo in, 159.

— plaid of, and Cretan, 271.

— race types in, 151.

— reindeer in, 55.

— fifth and sixth glacial epochs in, 55
et Seq.

— English hag like hag of, 63, 64.

— finger mutilation in, 31.

— folk lore collecting in, 39.

— goddess of, as a standing stone, 184.

— ‘‘hunger belt” of, 163.

— Irish warriors trained in, 71.

— luck ceremonies in, 34, 35, 3°

o 20)

Scotland (covz.)

— first footing, 35.

— bull sacrifices in, 155.

— Cailleach of, 88, and Greek Gello,
viet

— cave dwellers of, 144.

— Cretan fire ceremonies and, 273.

— Demeter and hags of, 180.

_— doves and ravens in, folk beliefs re-
garding, 291.

— early gold exports of, 327.

— Earth Mother of, 67, 68 ef seg., 88,
183.

— earth vows in, 67.

— Cretan god and Diarmid, 156.

— Earth Mother and pig and serpent,
183.

— iron lore, 284.

— in Ice Ages, 11 é7 seg.

— primitive harvesting, 252.

— tree and well offerings, 138, 301.

— weapon demons, 40, 310.

— Zeus legend and kelpie legends,
III.

— Azilian artifacts in, 54, 55-

— standing stones in legends of, 88.

— stone circle beliefs in, xlv, xlvi.

Seager, Mr., Mochlos treasure, 238,

239.
— the Vasiliki finds, 264 e7 seq.
Seal impressions, Cretan, 138.
Seals at Gournia, 263.
— Cretan and Egyptian links, 214.
—- the Zakro collection, 278, 294.
— 8-form shield and, 160.
— evidence of shipping on, 250.
Sea lore, ancient and modern, 250, 251.
Sea raids on Egypt, 334.
Sea shells, in Cretan shrines, 138.
Semele, as mother of Dionysus, 157.
Serpent, the Greek Gello as, 173.
— goddess, the Cretan, 167.
— goddesses (see Snake goddesses).
Seven sleepers, 301.
Sheep, Zeus and, 188.
Shells, shipping activities traced by,
199.

358

Shield symbol, 159, 160.

— in Mycene, 160, 161.

Shipping, Crete’s sea trade, 205 ef seg.

— Crete’s sea trade with Troy, 216 e¢
Seq.

— distribution of horn symbol, 310.

— during Cretan Empire period, 325.

— early Cretan and Egyptian, 195 e
seg., 206 et seq.

—- Egypt and England, 326.

— in Neolithic times, 199.

— Carian and Pheenician after Cretan,
330

— Cretan and Egyptian trade with |

Western Europe, 246.

— Cretan Black Sea trade, 227.

— Cretan exports and imports, 241.

— Cretan-Egyptian sea route, 214,
215,

— Cretans’, tapped trade routes, 245.

— Crete and Cycladic islands, 217 e¢
Seq.

— Egyptian timber imports, 218.

— Crete’s ancient vessels, 250.

— modern and ancient customs, 250,
251.

— English, in Neolithic times, 327.

— metal working and, 220, 221.

Sicily, 336.

— as the Homeric Hypereia, 131.

— Cretan influence in, 328.

— Crete’s trade with, 205.

Silver, finds of, at Troy, 236 e¢ seg.

— daggers and cups of, 236, 240.

-— source of Crete’s supplies of, 240,
241.

_— source of early supplies of, 220.

Sinat, copper mines of, 223.

Skulls and brain power, 27.

-—— Paleolithic large, 28.

Sky pillars, 309 (see Prllar worshtp).

Skylark, the Gello as, 173,

Sleepers, the seven, 301.

— Hercules one of the, 302.

— Zeus as one of, 302.

Smith, Professor Elliot, on
working in Egypt, 221, 222,

copper

CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Smith, Professor Elliot (cowz.)

—-—-w— on the ancient mouse cure,
Aa Ke

— —— on proto-Egyptians of Medi-
terranean race, 147 ef seq.

Snake, the Delphian, 174.

— charmers, priestesses as, 182.

— girdles, as votive offerings, 163.

Snake goddess, 59, 182, 307, 308.

—w—tthe Cretan and Greek,
L753

— — the Gournia shrine, 261, 262.

— — Demeter and, 175, 180.

— — faience figures of, 139, 140.

— — Greek Earth Mother as, 67.

— — Horus and, 188.

— goddesses, in Crete and Egypt,
174.

Snakes, Demeter and, 180, 181, 184,
294.

Solar myth theories, 78 ¢f seg.

Solomon, 224.

Solutrean culture, 20.

— Period in Western Europe, 23.

Sow (see Pig).

Sow-headed Demeter, 139.

Spain, Afgean influence in, 247.

— Crete’s silver from, 240.

— Cretan mariners visited, 246.

— Egyptian influence in, 246.

— early metal trade of, 246, 247.

— horn symbol in, 310.

— Palzolithic Ages in (see Paleolithic
Ages).

— Paleolithic attire in, like Cretan (see
Female attire).

— silver of, 220.

Sphakiots, descendants of Dorians, 205.

Sphinxes, 303.

— as pillar guardians, 307.

— on Cretan seals, 294.

Spine (see Backbone),

Spiral, the, problem of, 248, 249.

Spires, as pillar symbols, 309.

Star symbols, 141, 142.

Steatopygous figures, in Crete, 52.

— — goddesses and, 50.

174,

ey

INDEX

™*

Steatopygous figures (covz.)

— — Paleolithic, Babylonian, Maltese,
Egyptian, 30.

— — the bearded, 170.

Stone circles, as burial places, xlv.

— — spirits of dead within, xlv.

—- pillars, xlv.

— — Hermes and, xlvi.

— vases, in Egypt and Crete, 207 ¢/ seg.

— — the “‘ Boxer”, ‘‘ Harvester”, and
‘© Warrior”, 286 e¢ seg.

— worship, 162.

— — Demeter and, xlv.

— — spine charms and, 307.

Stonehenge, age of, 326.

Stones, standing, Earth Mother and,
184.

Strabo, 227.

Strepyan stage of culture, 23.

Superstitions, antiquity of, xxix.

Swine (see Pig).

Switzerland, horn symbol in, 310.

Syria, horn symbol in, 310.

Tammuz, 177, 180.

— as son and spouse of Ishtar, 157.

— antiquity of cult of, 164.

— Cretan god and, 156.

— Scef and, xxvii.

Themis, the Titan, 181.

Theseus, 185, 190, 332.

— the Minotaur legend, 113, 114.

Thessaly, Achzeans from, 325.

— Neolithic culture in, 242.

Thirlwall, on pre-Flellenic Greece, 74 e¢
Seq.

Thrace,, Aigean culture in, 245.

— migrations from, 333.

— Neolithic culture in, 242.

Thucydides, 322, 328, 330.

— Minos legends, 77, 110.

— on Trojan war, 80.

Thunder god (see Hammer god).

Tin, Cornish trade, 226, 245, 326, 327.

— German or Persian trade? 226, 227.

— imports from the East, 226, 227.

— in Crete, 220.

359

Tin (conz.)

— the Cassiterides islands, 247.

— Cretan imports. of, from Western
Europe, 225, 226.

— source of early supplies of, 223, 224.

Tiryns, 332, 333:

— in Cretan history, 321.

— discoveries at, 87 e¢ seg.

— Minoan empire and, 323, 325.

— prosperity of, 330.

Titans, Cretan legend of, 157.

Torreadors, male and female in Crete,
287.

Totem, Priest King as incarnation of,
189.

Totemism, xxxv, XXxvi.

— Egyptian traces of, 158.

Town life in Crete, 252 e¢ seq.

Trade routes, evidence of, Egyptian
beads in England, 326, 327.

— — Khorassan tin trade, 227.

— — the jade trade problem, 243, 244,
245.

— — the Rhone valley, 225, 226, 245,
247.

— — through Germany, 245.

— — Herodotus on, 249, 250.

Tree goddess, Demeter as, 175.

— offerings in Crete and Scotland, 301.

— worship, 162, 303, 306, 308, 309,
310 (see Pillar worship).

— — standing stones and, 184.

Trees, Lady of, Cretan goddess as, 172.

Trojan war, date of, 334.

Troy, 324, 334.

— the city of Homer, 333.

— the spiral problem, 248.

— copper problem of, 222.

— Cretan trade with, 205, 216 e¢ seg.,
239, 241, 245, 315.

— Déorpfeld with Schliemann at, 94,
95:

— ethnics of, 242, 243.

— excavations and discoveries at, 230
et seq.

— iron find in, 284.

— jade finds in, 243, 244.

360 CRETE & PRE-HELLENIC EUROPE

Troy (cont.)

— King Minos period and, IIo.
— metal working in, 221.

— obsidian artifacts of, 145.

— pottery of, and Cretan, 211.
— siege of the Homeric, 334.

— silver in, 240, 241.

— solar myth theory and, 79, 80, 81.
— tin and bronze trade of, 227.
— situation of, 227 e¢ seg.

— Thucydides on siege of, 80.

— Vasiliki’s trade with, 265.
Turkestan, black pottery of, 196.
— Cretan pottery links with, 266.
Tyre, Hiram of, 224.

Ulysses (see Odysseus),
Uranus, 173.

Vampires, xlii.

— cremation and, I.

Vaphio cups, 321.

Vases, the ‘* Boxer”, ‘* Harvester”, and
‘* Warrior”, 286 ef seg.

Vasiliki, in Cretan history, 317.

— pottery links with Egypt, Cyprus,
Spain, Troy, Turkestan, &c. , 226, 239,
265 e¢ seq.

— early trade of, 226.

— excavations at, 264 e¢ seg.

— trade of, with Troy, 239.

— Zakro and, 277.

Vedas, Homeric legends and, 8o.

Velchanos, Zeus as, 155.

Vesta, 173.

Virgin, Eternal, the, Zeus as, 169.

' Wales, early gold exports of, 327.

— Otherworld beliefs in, xxxix, xl.

— pig taboo in, 159.

— the ‘‘ mothers” of, 167 ef seg.

Water demons in Crete, 307.

Water worship, 162, 175, 301.

Weapon demons, in India and Scotland,
40.

— worship, 310.

Well worship (see Vater worship).

Whale, spine of, as Cretan charm, 306,
307.

Winds and spirits, 309.

Wine god, Zeus as, 152.

Winged ‘disk, the, in Cretan, Hittite,
and Assyrian, 294.

Wishing wells, in Crete and Scotland,
XXVili, 3OI.

Women as torreadors, 287.

— Cretan priestesses, 290.

— in Crete and Lycia, 319.

— in religion, 167 ef seq.

— attire of, in Crete and Egypt, and in
Paleolithic times (see Hemale attire).

— fashions of, in Crete, 272. ,

— importance of in goddess worship,
XXXVi ef seq.

—in Cretan and Sumerian society,
XXXVii.

— inheritance through, in Crete and
Egypt, 333:

— position of, in Crete, 71.

— Semites and attitude towards, xxxvii.

World house, the, 305.

World’s ages (see Aves).

World spine, 305; pillars and, 309.

Yellow Demeter, 181.

Zakro, in Cretan history, 319 ef seg.

| — Egyptian sea raiders from, 334.

— excavations at, 276 ef seg.
— sealings of, 294.

| Zeus, 173.

— as a bi-sexual deity, 169.

— as a sleeper, 302.

— asa standing stone, 184.

— as deity of vegetation,{161, 162.

— as the Great Father, 171.

— Dicteean Jupiter connection, 302.

— gives law code to Minos, I1f.

— in Crete, 60, 171, 295, 299, 300.

—in Cretan legend, 112, 113, 117,
59s

— in Demeter legend, 178 e¢ seg.

| — in Hesiodic legend, 75, 78.

— the Europé legend, 110, 111.

~

INDEX ' 361

Zeus (cont.) Zeus (cont.)

— the solar myth theory, 78, 79. — Minos cult and, 187, 188.

— black doves and, 166. — political significance of worship of,
— bull and, 189. 152, 153-

— Dionysus and, 155. — Ra and, 298, 299.

— eagle of, xlvii. — the bull and, 159.

— grave of, in Crete, 153, 154. — the Cretan and Osiris, 155.

— Lamia and, 172, 173. — the Cretan legend of, #53, 154.

— Mt. Ida cave and, 299, 300. — the pig and, 159.

— Minos, a son of, 97, I11, 190, 295. — various forms of, 152.

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C7 M3
phe! Donald Alexander, 1873-1936.

Myths of Crete and pre-Hellenic Europe

Mackenzie, Donald Alexander, 1873-1936.

Myths of Crete and pre-Hellenic Europe, by Donald A.
Mackenzie; with illustrations in colour by John Duncan ...
and from photographs. London, Gresham publishing com-
pany ,1917,

2 p. L. fli-liv, 362 p. col. front., 35 pl. (8 col.) map. 227. (Myth

3381282

1. Mythology, Cretan. 2. Art.Cretan. 1. Title. I] Series

A 18—881
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Forbes library -
for Library of Congrers

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